Don’t throw stones at Adelaide’s glass towers

A decent number of planning consultants, lawyers, architects and Freemasons should be enjoying some Friday knock offs this afternoon after getting the go ahead this week to build Adelaide’s new tallest tower.

A render of the 37-storey “Keystone Tower” approved for North Terrace. Image: Walter Brooke and Associates and Freemasons Hall Trust supplied

The plan is for a 37-storey, 183-metre skyscraper behind the Freemasons Grand Lodge on North Terrace. A hotel, museum, observatory and office space all feature in the $400 million plans.

But, as with every major CBD development, not everyone is on board.

Residents on Frome Street in the nearby Adelaidean tower – currently Adelaide’s tallest building that houses both the Crowne Plaza hotel and apartments – engaged planning consultants Phillip Brunning and Associates (PBA) to argue against the Freemasons’ project.

PBA submitted to the state’s planning authorities that the Keystone Tower “will not… contribute positively to the character of the immediate area”.

“The design aesthetic is not drawn from its context,” PBA argued, according to documents published by the State Commission Assessment Panel (SCAP) last week.

“Rather, a generic glass tower aesthetic is employed that is inter-nationally ubiquitous and very much uncharacteristic of this locality.

“In this regard, the proposal will introduce a building which is anomalous with its surroundings.”

Criticisms of the Keystone Tower’s glass finish are not new, but the consultants behind the project were surprised to hear it coming from residents of the Adelaidean (a building which, coincidentally, also has a glass façade).

The Adelaidean on Frome Street standing proudly with its glass facade. Photo: InDaily

In response to PBA’s criticisms, Future Urban consultant Fabian Barone, on behalf of the Keystone Tower group, pointed out the curious situation.

“This particular representation has come from the building at 19 Frome Street, Adelaide, which is located less than 30 metres to the east of the site (therefore, forming part of the locality) and principally composed of glass,” Barone wrote.

“As the old saying goes, people who live in glass houses should not throw stones.”

Shhhhh, don’t wake the oysters

While the crashing of stones against glass echoes along North Terrace, it turns out that oysters under the sea aren’t having it too good either.

Distressing research from the University of Adelaide released this week has found the ocean is becoming too loud for baby oysters.

Baby oysters rely on natural sounds and cues when moving around and selecting the perfect home, but new research has found those natural sounds are decreasing due to habitat loss. Where these natural sounds are diminishing, human-made sounds are increasing, creating interference that gets in the way of conservationists trying to attract oysters towards reefs by using natural sounds.

If all the other side effects of global warming haven’t made you act, surely this will.

Questions and more questions at Town Hall

InSider only has to brave the slings and arrows of Town Hall once a week, so we have immense sympathy for the hard-working staff at the City of Adelaide that deal with frequent interrogation.

This week, the otherwise unusually slim council agenda was beefed up by 46 questions that took roughly 32 and a half hours for those poor staffers to answer.

Now, don’t get us wrong, InSider loves it when councillors put questions on notice, especially juicy ones.

The practice of having answers published in the council minutes and on the public record is of course, good for the public interest and in turn democracy. But every now and then, there’s a rare gem of an answer that’s good for the mental health of reporters who send multiple requests each day just to receive a simple figure.

Among the swarm of questions, there were some interesting costings for a North Adelaide development and insights into Lord Mayor Jane Lomax-Smith’s social media.

It was just a few weeks back when InSider reported Lomax-Smith dropped the mic in a Town Hall Rap Battle with an Instagram video rebutting a claim made by Councillor Henry Davis about how much committee chairs get paid.

Thanks to Davis’ questioning, we know that staff took only 20 minutes to record, edit and publish that video. Lomax-Smith says it’s because she’s a one hit wonder.

“Robert Mitchum and Natalie Wood were renowned one-take wonders, and who could forget Meryl Streep?” she said.

“I draw inspiration from them when recording content for the ‘gram so I can get back to the important job of improving our city.”

Other insights from this week’s questions include the value of gifts Lomax-Smith has received this council term (a respectable $2,578.90). We see it fit to award her the gold medal in popularity for the InSider Olympics.

Coming second in the gift-giving popularity contest is Councillor Mark Siebentritt with $160, with all others tied for bronze at $115.