The University of South Australia will build a new Great Hall underneath Hindley Street in a development incorporating a pool and a large tower containing student accommodation, InDaily can reveal.

Vice Chancellor David Lloyd’s new strategic action plan, finalised last year, called for a Great Hall to become the centre of the University’s activities.

That project received the tick of approval from the university this week. Along with a new cancer centre on North Terrace, the development will take up a large chunk of the uni’s capital budget for the next few years.

The hall itself is anticipated to be underground, a spokesperson for the university told InDaily. The development will contain a new tower of student accommodation and a plaza between  the recently completed Smart Building, which the university uses as a student hub.

“Just yesterday we’ve pretty much cleared the way for that to happen beside the Smart Building on Hindley Street,” Lloyd told InDaily.

“In terms of the hall and pool and accommodation, we put that beside the Smart Building.

“We’ll go out to market around tenders and that, we have a concept piece for it but it’s not detailed in any way, shape or form. That’s the other big capital development piece. That’ll describe a centre for the institution, here in City West.”

The hall is likely to contain a gym as well as an indoor sporting space suitable for use by the university’s students and clubs. It’s also likely to serve as a graduation space for the university, which are currently run at the Adelaide Convention Centre.

Lloyd also confirmed the university’s long-rumoured interest in the old bus depot site at Franklin St, but he would not talk about the university’s plans for it.

“I’ll tell you about it when I have it,” he said.

Tomorrow: UniSA VC David Lloyd has just had his one-year anniversary in the job. He tells Liam Mannix about his drive to turn SuperTAFE into a university with a capital U.