Sensational-Adelaide.com

Adelaide University masterplan to overhaul North Tce campus
Paul Starick, Chief reporter, The Advertiser


A HISTORIC transformation of Adelaide’s North Tce — including a 24-storey tower and a striking modern “gateway” building — is planned by Adelaide University in a 20-year blueprint to be unveiled on Thursday.

In a bid to reinvent the 142-year-old campus, a new multistorey entrance building, including an underground conference centre, is proposed at Pulteney St’s northern end.

Adelaide University vice-chancellor Warren Bebbington told The Advertiser the North Tce campus plans capitalised on the $55 million East End tram extension, likely to include a stop near the proposed buildings.

The unfunded masterplan, which also includes upgrades for the Roseworthy and Waite campuses, is yet to be fully costed but is likely to involve expenditure beyond $1 billion.

Professor Bebbington said the first stage would involve the gateway building and 24-storey tower, on the south-eastern intersection of North Tce and Pulteney St, which would house business, law and economics schools. A 600-bed student accommodation tower is also planned in a revamp of the Schulz building off Kintore Ave.

“The new plan will transform the university’s physical presence over the coming decades,” Professor Bebbington writes in the masterplan.

“It provides a spectacular new entrance and central amenities at North Tce, together with new facilities for many schools and greatly enhanced campus amenities for students. There’s 25,000 students now and the campus was designed for less than half that.”

The gateway building would replace the 1960s Napier and Ligertwood buildings, to the east of the university’s landmark Bonython Hall.

This represents generational change to that section of North Tce given the overwhelming number of heritage buildings on the boulevard’s northern side.

Professor Bebbington said the masterplan was the next stage of development after the $246 million Adelaide Health and Medical Sciences Building in the city’s West End — due to open next year and the largest capital works project in the university’s history.

The university would have to fund the entrance building but partners, such as superannuation funds and private developers, would be sought for the 24-storey tower and student accommodation building.

The entrance building would include a new arts precinct, showcasing music and creative arts, while vehicle entrances would be relocated to Frome Rd and lead into an underground carpark.

The carpark works would enable the campus to be effectively a single level, removing the need for students and staff to traverse relatively steep stairs. The Napier Building that the new “gateway” would replace had concrete cancer, Professor Bebbington said, and would have to be demolished in years to come.

The gateway building also would enable the university to display a significant art collection, including hundreds of pieces now kept in storage.

The university last month sold the 4ha Thebarton campus to a group of private investors for a sum said to be in the low-to-mid $20 million range.

Professor Bebbington said the university council had given in-principle approval to the masterplan but the next step would involve developing business cases and feasibility studies for the key projects. However, the masterplan was not based upon a significant expansion of student numbers, given relatively flat forecasts for SA school leaver numbers and relatively slow growth in international student ranks for at least the next seven years.

Projects at the other campuses include a grand tree-lined ring road around Roseworthy’s historic centrepiece building and recasting the layout and services at Waite. The masterplan does not extend to the multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the old RAH site.

The free East End tram shuttle was announced in July, when Professor Bebbington said it would provide the North Tce campus’s 27,000 staff and students an environmentally responsible way to get to university.

It also will link more than 2000 staff and students at the West End building.

PeFe wrote:I don't understand why the university is keeping the building on the south east corner of Pulteney St/.North Tce.
I would demolish it and totally start again on that site.

Splashmo wrote:Interesting to see a lot of those new low-rise buildings on the campus too - the white boxes with the grassy roofs. Quite a few changes coming if they can afford it.