Brisbane City Council’s announcement that Victoria Park Golf Course will be closed and the area converted to active parkland is a positive initiative worthy of our support. The proposal is as yet embryonic. Early detail can be accessed on Council’s website here:

https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/things-to-see-and-do/council-venues-and-precincts/parks/brisbane%E2%80%99s-biggest-new-park-victoria-park-vision

It is also gratifying to see that the COMMITTEE FOR BRISBANE has taken the initiative to survey its membership for ideas and has compiled worthwhile feedback to the Council. This feedback can be viewed here:

https://bda.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/C4B_Victoria-Park-Submission-27.9.19.pdf
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It is worth noting that, some years ago when the Committee was then known as the BRISBANE DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION, this Group facilitated a similar urban design workshop: the exercise at that time focused on ways to integrate the as yet unbuilt Inner City Bypass into the fabric of the city. 

Both then and now a significant initiative was/is suggested. To quote from the latest feedback document this initiative involves:

 “…stitching together the city centre and one of Brisbane’s greatest assets…” .

“…green space could extend across parts of the ICB to stitch together the two parts of the park…”

So, in doing this we gain not only a new park but also we make it accessible to a much wider community who can access it on foot.
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Such an initiative is not unprecedented, having been undertaken in many parts of the world at various scales. Have a look at Boston’s “Big Dig”, Seoul’s Cheonggyecheon and Detroit’s I-696 Pedestrian Plaza. These are just a few examples  of how the negative impact of traffic arteries can be overcome for the city’s benefit

​In our instance the Inner City Bypass happens to run through a valley between higher grounds on either side. This makes it relatively simple to create a “land bridge” across the traffic artery: the parkland flowing down from Gregory Terrace can then link with and be part of the new Victoria Park. In this way the historic Spring Hill neighbourhood gains the benefit of direct pedestrian access into the new parkland. Similarly Herston and surrounding neighbourhoods gain enhanced accessibility without the need for vehicle trips.

Extending our thinking to a broader scale it is possible to conceive of the CBD as being enveloped by A NECKLACE OF CONNECTED PARKLANDS. This necklace can extend from the City Botanic Gardens up the sub-tropical boulevard that is Albert Street, through Roma Street Parklands and into the new Victoria Park. Further future initiatives could then facilitate a linkage through Fortitude Valley to New Farm Park.  

A pedestrian journey such as this would amount to a significant lifestyle enhancement for our local population as well as creating a wonderful way for visitors to experience and explore our city
 
 
It is interesting to note that Sydney has begun studying its own “green necklace of cultural landscapes”  - an initiative remarkably similar to what we are proposing in Brisbane. The Sydney proposal can be viewed at this link:

https://www.foreground.com.au/cities/the-green-necklace-a-new-perspective-on-sydney-harbours-parklands/
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As our city matures it is important that we find new ways of making the most of all its assets.

When faced with the requirement of significant ramping to a upper level Childcare centre, how do you best exploit this architectural element in a way that gives back to the surrounding urban context?

Our solution?

To hybridise the ramp and landscaped urban space typology and create an inviting journey for visitors to our new Childcare centre in an existing shopping centre. The Landscaped ramp in turn enhances the existing retail precinct, encouraging shoppers to occupy the outdoor lane ways and spaces in an attempt to turn the shopping centre ‘inside out’.

Work will be underway soon, with the new intervention set to revitalise and enhance the existing coastal centre.

King George Square: an expansive space once proffered to be the civic heart of Brisbane, now a hot glorified passageway braved by pedestrians for a quicker route between Ann and Adelaide Street. With government elections imminent, debate posturing a more habitable future for the Square has re-surfaced with Labour Mayoral candidate Rod Harding pledging $7 million to green King George. 

​It is no secret that Brisbane’s public has yearned for a shadier, more hospitable square since its barely assimilated redesign in 2009, however before we jump to spending a chunk of taxpayer money on the installation and upkeep of ultimately sparse greenery it is well worth considering alternative solutions drawn from the successes and failures of current and past Square iterations. 

​At the inner Brisbane suburb of Teneriffe, the local Council has plans to “upgrade” a four way intersection (Commercial Road & Skyring Terrace) by installing traffic lights, removing car parking spaces and existing trees and creating right turn lanes for vehicles.

​Back in 2012 Brisbane City Council published similar proposals for the four way intersection of James, Doggett, and Robertson Streets in Fortutide Valley. At that time we raised substantial concerns which were detailed here http://www.neylan.com.au/conversation/prioritising-vs-filtering-in-turn.
Fortunately Council’s plans for that intersection in Fortitude Valley did not proceed; consequently the pedestrian friendly nature and low vehicle speed environment of the area remains and life goes on.
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Now similar proposals are actually about to be implemented in Teneriffe.

Cities traditionally are made up of streets and squares fronted by buildings.

Our little city of Brisbane is on the cusp of having a sizeable chunk of its traditional CBD street pattern obliterated by a gargantuan new gambling casino complex. It looks like the architectural concept has been heavily influenced by the Marina Quays complex in Singapore – with a curvaceous viewing platform linking high-rise buildings more than 20 storeys above the ground and with building podiums straddling streets below. The activities flow down to the river edge with questionable spaces eventuating under and around the existing elevated freeway structures along the river.

All this is to occur in the most historic part of our city – where some of our earliest buildings erected in the mid eighteen hundreds have been preserved for posterity. These heritage buildings will be dwarfed by the proposed new homogeneous complex which interrupts the street pattern and which will eventuate in an unfriendly public street level experience for pedestrians.

Being a small business ourselves we were impressed by a recent address at the National Press Club by Peter Strong, CEO of the Council of Small Business of Australia.

'There is a small ruling class in Australia of institutions and large businesses that need to be disempowered and that power given back to the majority'

 He includes in this business ‘ruling class’ Australia’s supermarket chain duopoly who, along with the biggest landlords, manipulate urban planning processes so that their malls become the only places to shop: he says that, at their whim, they will organize streets to be made one way, carparks outside their malls to be moved under or next to their malls, and for bus stops to be moved closer to their entrances. “…they capture the High Street and enclose it in a business ‘factory farm’… customers used to be ‘free range’ in the High Street. The High Street once again is owned by a medieval Lord…”

The development of the elevated riverside expressway in the 1970's may have alleviated the traffic congestion problems of the day but its construction has formed a concrete barrier along our city's river edge, making the development of the Northbank river edge a complex urban design issue. The latest proposal for Northbank is the Queen's Wharf development which is focused on enticing tourists to Brisbane through the construction of new landmark buildings along the city side of the riverside expressway. This proposed multi-million dollar development still leaves the question of how do we facilitate a seamless connection between the existing CBD and the Northbank river edge when every access path will be exposed to the heaving underbelly of the elevated expressway?

In our city of Brisbane (Australia) we have just experienced the worst floods in 36 years. One outcome has been power outages which  has meant that traffic lights at many of our street intersections have not been working.

This has not resulted in any noticeable chaos !

In fact some observers have commented that traffic flows have been  better – drivers are far more alert & considerate and they are driving more cautiously.

Since this blog began we have been attempting to point out the disconnect between building height and development density.

Our qualitative assessment of two inner urban areas of Brisbane (Newstead & Petrie Bight) showed the diametrically opposed urban form characteristics of each area (podium/tower high-rise type vs. low-rise perimeter block form) and offered some value judgements on the relative merits of each type in terms of the actual environment created for residents.