Commenting on the story: Heritage facade to be demolished as Pirie St Hyatt gets green light

The decision to allow the demolition of the circa-1920s heritage façade of the former Bank of South Australia building at 51 Pirie Street is an appalling decision for the retention of our cultural and built environment.

Previous versions of design for this development site showed the retention of the facade – so why all of a sudden do we hear that the facade will be demolished to make way for yet another concrete and glass jungle adding to the wind-tunnel effect in both Gawler Place and Pirie Street?

From the image published with your article, I note that the guest drop-off/pick-up point is in Pirie Street next to the intersection with Gawler Place. Have traffic-management studies been completed taking into consideration how congested Pirie Street can be, even outside of peak hour traffic??

When will local and state government departments take responsibility for our heritage and not allow such developments? Once it’s gone, it’s gone, eg. the South Australia Hotel that made way for an ugly multi-storey brick edifice. Definitely brickbats stuff.

All I see in this development is another modern multi-storey box of glass. Wake up Adelaide, we are losing our cultural and built environment right before our eyes. – Paula Furlani

It is very disappointing that the proposed new Hyatt hotel to be built in Pirie Street will not be able to incorporate the original frontage of the heritage-listed building.

They managed to do this at the Her Majesty’s Theatre on Grote Street. Very disappointing. – Belinda Meyers.

When I go overseas to look at the local architecture, I find myself looking at buildings with style, character and history.

The Pirie Street Hyatt is just another reason for tourists not to come to Adelaide. Who would go to Chester or Vienna or Barcelona etc if it was full of buildings like that proposed for Pirie Street?

We’ve lost so many buildings that would have drawn tourists from all over the world. 

Lets just knock down the historical buildings we’ve still got and save ourselves a lot of arguments in the future. – Geoff Moore

Commenting on the story: “Lacuna of oversight”: MPs in accountability vacuum, warns ICAC

Bruce Lander is absolutely right in highlighting the absence of a code of conduct for MPs.

Our representatives should subject themselves to what is in common use in any respectable organisation;  requirements on how to behave and be accountable, as well as appropriate processes and sanctions to deal with misbehaviour.

Mr Lander may not have pleased everybody in his seven year term, but South Australia would have been the poorer without him. We should all thank him for the work he did on our behalf. – Michael Schilling

I was recently an elected member of a local metropolitan council for eight years.

During that time ICAC was brought in for elected members by the State Government and later strengthened so that the rules became onerous, time-consuming and confusing, yet the state has never seen fit to look to manage its own members’ conduct despite their having a much greater opportunity for corruption.

Perhaps the Federal Government should bring in ICAC rules for the states (and also for themselves) in the same way the State Government forced them upon the local councils. – Lynda Yates

Commenting on the opinion piece: Our aged should be secure, not stressed and exploited

I actually agree with Morry Bailes’ article.

But as a long time senior Liberal member in SA, wouldn’t he be in a position to have some influence on his party’s thinking?

He cannot be the only person with in the LP who thinks that the elderly have been treated very poorly by the Fed Govt, who are responsible for aged care.

Especially as they been in power for 14 of the last 21 years. – Helen Chadwick

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