Brisbane is a young city by international standards, and has been experiencing an enormous amount of growth since Expo 88.
Inevitably there will be some mistakes, many of them deriving from a need to be seen as a sophisticated place both here and abroad. In chasing that dream we have to be careful not to embarrass ourselves.
To prove we are a New World City, and a regional leader, there comes a thirst for large scale projects.
Over the years, that has manifested into an interest in ‘iconic’ structures – a code word for a big high rise. Our iconic elements are our natural places – the Brisbane River and the cliffs, which are the defining elements of Brisbane city.
I have lived in other so-called New World cities (mainly in Asia) that, lacking the natural elements we in Brisbane already have, must build their own.
Our cliff faces are therefore an important part of Brisbane’s heritage and are recognised on the Queensland Heritage Register, with past governments consistently resisting attempts by developers to place buildings obscuring them.
In addition to the cliffs, the vestiges of Brisbane’s past as a port remain and also form an essential part of our city fabric. The Newstead, Teneriffe and New Farm river edges retain them with the preservation of the Woolstores, the CSR factory and the Powerhouse.
The Howard Smith wharves are another vestige. The site was built between 1939 to 1942, known as Brisbane Central Wharves, and is one of the most culturally and historically significant riverfront locations in Brisbane, the only remaining wharf structure next to the CBD. Numerous previous attempts to develop it were blocked by State Government and the local community and it is generally agreed the site demonstrates “rare, uncommon or endangered aspects” of Queensland’s cultural heritage.
The present Howard Smith Wharves is a popular place, celebrated as part of the city fabric with its open space and venues consistently welcoming large numbers of visitors and local families while its architecture reflects its heritage as an industrial precinct.
The new plans that have been lodged with the Brisbane City Council appear to ignore that cultural heritage of the site. It is a large project that extends itself into a river that was rebuilt due to previous flood damage to the site in 1934. Where the river meets Petrie Bight, the State Government widened and deepened the river’s draft by 7.9m to improve the river’s approach and lessen the damage of future floods. The cliff face was also excavated to widen the river’s path by 21m.
The proposal adds three restaurants plus a pool bar and a shallow swimming pool for hotel guests onto a podium above a wharf structure that projects onto the river.
The proposal also centrally places a large hotel on the site of the current Felons Barrel Hall. A 9-storey, double-loaded building 78m long – nearly the length of a football field – flanked on both sides by beer storage tanks underneath illuminated signage.
The height of the hotel breaches the top of the cliff edge it sits beneath, reducing views from Bowen Terrace. The hotel’s form is designed to “pay homage and celebrate Brisbane’s brick and stone architecture”.
That is a misplaced reference.
Howard Smith Wharves never had a connection to the Woolstores precinct. By transforming and sanitising a cultural element into a simplistic version of its original use, this ersatz copy of a wool storage building serves only to demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of our local heritage.
And in adopting that Woolstores form, the hotel building inevitably becomes bulky, obscuring the very element – the cliff face – that truly defines its local character.
To make everything fit, the principal pedestrian access is now threaded around the rear of the site and away from the river’s edge. There is also a problem of traffic movement, including vehicle access to the hotel through an extended basement (as the hotel and new facilities can only be accessed from the Ivory Street end). The low height of the basement carpark requires servicing to be done through frequent visits of a van small enough to fit inside.
This scheme, by the large amount of product to be accommodated, appears to not only reject the key natural elements that define Brisbane but also the simple functional architecture of its past.
Yes I know it’s exciting to have the Olympics in 2032, but surely not at the expense of giving away our heritage, our character and our open space.
What do you think of Howard Smith Wharves’ plans?
Have your say – email us at editorial@village-voice.com.au
