Going... going... gone, to the highest bidder.Dear Peter Beattie,
Perhaps now is the time to make a gentle suggestion that you take a trip to see a reputable doctor and have your mental faculties checked. Hire a minibus and take your entire cabinet team with you. Today is February the 14th. Valentine's Day. April 1st isn't for another month and a half. Credit where credit is due- your announcement yesterday would have made a fine April Fool's joke indeed. But the fact that you got the date so wrong has me genuinely worried that you're suffering some kind of cognitive decline. Get checked out. It could be early onset alzheimer's or it might be just some sort of weird psychosis induced by inhaling the body odour of property developers, or perhaps touching one's fork at a fancy restaurant. It's not healthy to spend too much time around those people- you never know what you'll catch.
Yours sincerely,
Sarah.
Building over the fucking Brisbane river. That has to be some kind of joke, right? The north bank development proposal includes building several residential skyscrapers over 30 stories high, an olympic swimming pool, a gym (which will no doubt be used exclusively by the people wealthy enough to afford an apartment in the new buildings) and a huge car park. Right on top of the Brisbane river.
To paraphrase Multiplex director Shane Bulloch:
"Don't worry, the people in cars will still be able to see the sky when they're driving, even if the dark shape of a 37-story building is looming over the roadway from where a river was once visible."
I thought it was bad having a Mayor who is beholden to developers and has an almost perverse obsession with tunnels, now it turns out that Peter Beattie is even worse.
PROMENADES, high-rise buildings, an Olympic swimming pool and cycleways will be built out over the Brisbane River in a radical $1.5 billion plan unveiled yesterday.
Premier Peter Beattie said a "much larger" proposal than was earlier envisaged had won Multiplex Developments Australia preferred bidder status for stage one of the CBD North Bank project. The development will reach 40m into the river, stretching between the William Jolly Bridge and Goodwill Bridge. Stage one will be between the Victoria Bridge and Alice Street.
But the plan is open for community scrutiny and the Government will not commit until it tests "public acceptability" in the next month.
Under the proposal, the spaghetti-like Riverside Expressway would be enclosed on both sides by buildings, but it would not be covered.
Multiplex director Shane Bulloch said drivers on the expressway would still see sky above and mountain vistas.
"The design has really been developed to allow views back over the river, back up to Mt Coot-tha," he said.
Work could start on the project as early as next year and is due for completion in 10 years. Mr Beattie said the Government had required that there be no cost to taxpayers, but he said this was only possible if "significant high-rise development" was allowed.
Multiplex is proposing seven high-rise buildings - the tallest with 37 stories - and a total floorspace of about 230,000sqm, of which about half would be residential. About 100,000sqm would be offices. A 300-room hotel also is included in the plan.
Opposition infrastructure spokesman Bruce Flegg said the plan did nothing to improve the look of the freeway.
Infrastructure Minister Anna Bligh said the Government wanted the public's view on the plan before endorsing it.
2 comments:
At the risk of upsetting the author and acknowledging to know little about the North Bank project, can I point out that your picture of the path where you claim the site will be built (person walking away from camera) is actually further down the river (at the QUT CityCat stop) than the North Bank development will be. This area IS dangerous, totally isolated, poorly-lit and with precarious bike-paths, not to mention the pedestrian approaches from the city being very obscure indeed. Also, the picture that you will 'show your kids when they ask what the area was like' is slightly misleading in that that actual development site is way up in the periphary of the photo. I suspect you chose this photo as it shows the mangroves rather than the extremely unsightly Riverside Expressway. On this note, how anyone can describe the Riverside Expressway area (opposite the Cultural Centre) as 'the most scenic part of the CBD' needs their head read. Finally, as a Brisbanite since birth (and this comment is not necessarily endorsing the North Bank precinct) I am an extremely strong supporter of responsible development in Brisbane. Our CBD is a dead-heart, overburdened with office buildings and recent residential developments with very few community facilities, something needs to change and the only way is forward/up! I say this as a passionate Queenslander and someone who has seen cities in 28 countries. Finally, I grow weary of comparisons to 1974 which is widely acknowledged as a freak event and which is unlikely to happen again based on the significant improvements in up-stream flow management.
SORRY, I can't label this, my name is Sean and I'm on my way to setup a blog ID.
Hi Sean- you must have missed the part about the North Bank development being 800m long. And the bike path near the QUT CityCat stop is very scenic- the 'precarious' area you mention happens to be right slap bang up against the mangroves that are going to be destroyed.
Don't talk nonsense about the 'dangerous' area near the QUT CityCat stop- if there were statistics showing abnormally high levels of crime then Anna Bligh would be all over it instead of yapping about 'a perception' that the area is dangerous.
As for what constitutes the most scenic area of Brisbane, I understand that's something that's very subjective, but as someone who regularly cycles that route I stand by my assessment.
Also, if you're up for responsible development, take note of the fact that Queensland's peak body for town planners have condemned it. Here's the post we made about that.
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