[U/C] 145-159 King William Street (GPO) | 61m | 16 Levels | Hotel

[Patrick_27]

I'm no professional or even graduate architect, but I can still come up with a concept for this site in a few hours - here's one i prepared earlier

I tried to go with something that blends with the newer developments surrounding it but with significantly more height (30 stories). Blocky compartments, commerical looking glass facades, little or no balconies to speak of, this would be a hotel and office only. Much more interesting IMO than two simple offset boxes. It's not ground breaking by any means, but like I said i'm no architect.

That's a great design, and much praise for the short time-frame in-which you came up with it.

But, two things you've not factored in when creating your design. There's way too much floor-space because you've added the height (unless of-course it's mixed use?) and the building drastically overwhelms the clock tower.
Fact of it is, you can't design let alone build what everyone wants which is an epic tall building on the site provided. If they were going to build a massive building on this block it'd have to be where the ANZ or CC8 Buildings are to avoid ruining destroying the the appearance of the Post Office.

[Patrick_27]

I'm no professional or even graduate architect, but I can still come up with a concept for this site in a few hours - here's one i prepared earlier

I tried to go with something that blends with the newer developments surrounding it but with significantly more height (30 stories). Blocky compartments, commerical looking glass facades, little or no balconies to speak of, this would be a hotel and office only. Much more interesting IMO than two simple offset boxes. It's not ground breaking by any means, but like I said i'm no architect.

That's a great design, and much praise for the short time-frame in-which you came up with it.

But, two things you've not factored in when creating your design. There's way too much floor-space because you've added the height (unless of-course it's mixed use?) and the building drastically overwhelms the clock tower.
Fact of it is, you can't design let alone build what everyone wants which is an epic tall building on the site provided. If they were going to build a massive building on this block it'd have to be where the ANZ or CC8 Buildings are to avoid ruining destroying the the appearance of the Post Office.

Though, in saying all of that. May I further stipulate that I really love that design. Would look great on somewhere like the Balfours site.

[H1ghlife]

That's a great design, and much praise for the short time-frame in-which you came up with it.

But, two things you've not factored in when creating your design. There's way too much floor-space because you've added the height (unless of-course it's mixed use?) and the building drastically overwhelms the clock tower.
Fact of it is, you can't design let alone build what everyone wants which is an epic tall building on the site provided. If they were going to build a massive building on this block it'd have to be where the ANZ or CC8 Buildings are to avoid ruining destroying the the appearance of the Post Office.

Completely agree with you Patrick, It is far too big for the site and does overwhelm the classic style of the post office. Just a pipe-dream, but I sometimes wish designs would pass approval based on public opinion rather than the ACC simply giving the green light to proposals like this. Will be interesting to see what happens though. Fingers crossed they come up with something a little more dynamic

[stronic]

Actually, I really don't mind these proposals. It's seamless and simple. You don't need to over complicate high rises in order for them to be special. It's quality over quantity. For a building that's not very tall, any kind of overly complicated features would stunt it and make it look awkward.

[Ben]

These 2 are expected to be approved at Thursdays DAC meeting.

The street level activation looks very promising. Dare I say reminiscent of Melbourne laneways.

Lots of high quality renders in the document here.

http://www.dac.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/ ... _GPO_1.pdf

[slenderman]

I do like the ground level activation a lot, but sadly it seems like this is where they've put all their attention. Some underground retail with a tunnel connecting to the new Victoria Square would be pretty cool IMO as well.

But Jesus Christ, how on earth can they approve those mediocre tower designs?

We often talk about "missed opportunities" in "prominent locations", but if there's just ONE site in the city that should have something truly architecturally special, it's this one. Right in the thick and heart of the CBD, it should help attract people to the new Victoria Square and complement the urban landscape, as well as the iconic GPO and its clock tower. These towers do not do this.

These buildings should be recognisable on a national scale IMO (but that probably wouldn't happen unless we got a new tallest from it). Still, there should be absolutely zero regret if we put these two buildings up a few decades into the future. But I digress, this stuff is pretty common knowledge.

[Will]

I don't mind the smaller tower over the GPO. My problem lies with the larger tower. My 2 main concerns are:

1) Architecture - so incredibly plain. t is essentially a glass box. Makes vanilla exciting.
2) Height - it is roughly the same height as CCT1 and CCT8. Thus, from a distance, all these 3 buildings will appear as a giant block. This creates a "wall" effect, which is visually unappealing and simply boring.

[crawf]

I don't mind the smaller tower over the GPO. My problem lies with the larger tower. My 2 main concerns are:

1) Architecture - so incredibly plain. t is essentially a glass box. Makes vanilla exciting.
2) Height - it is roughly the same height as CCT1 and CCT8. Thus, from a distance, all these 3 buildings will appear as a giant block. This creates a "wall" effect, which is visually unappealing and simply boring.

Exactly my thoughts.

[slenderman]

Also, it says on Page 18 of the PDF Ben posted that these towers are 107.80 and 130.75m AHD. If I'm reading the diagrams correctly, I think this works out to be 63.15 and 86.25 metres.

And I hate both of these buildings, even the short one, although that one does look much better. Ideally I'd combine both buildings into one along the rough footprint they currently both are supposed to occupy and make something tall that curves around from Franklin to King William Streets. I might whip up something quickly in my new favourite program Sketchup in the next few days to show you guys roughly what I mean.

[Matt]

Street level looks fantastic - everything from about 10m up? Shithouse.

Just. So. DULL.

Enough with the boxes already.

[Honey of a City]

Magic site, amazing opportunity, crashing bore of a design. The architects have managed to swamp and bury the GPO tower and building, rather than highlight and celebrate it. Back to the drawing board please folks.

[Ho Really]

The grouping of these buildings is all wrong. The shorter tower should be the taller one while the slender taller tower should be reduced in size. That way we can have a 25-30 level iconic tower that will contrast well with the GPO clock tower and the other smaller tower giving us a gap to the ATO building in the same group. Any thoughts on this?

Cheers

[jk1237]

well I'm gonna go against the flow and say I really like this. I love the plain British city style modern box design of the 2 towers and I think they fit in perfectly with our streetscape and skyline

[Llessur2002]

I don't mind it - I'm not offended by it. But I'm not blown away with it by any means. I agree that in such a prominent position something spectacular should be built here and I'm not convinced the current design could be classed as 'spectacular'.

[Patrick_27]

The grouping of these buildings is all wrong. The shorter tower should be the taller one while the slender taller tower should be reduced in size. That way we can have a 25-30 level iconic tower that will contrast well with the GPO clock tower and the other smaller tower giving us a gap to the ATO building in the same group. Any thoughts on this?

Cheers

Won't work, it'll clash too much with the clock tower. I think they should scrap the office building behind the GPO together and just focus on the other building.