Reviews written by citymakers

There is a tension between the urban design goal to foster lively city streets, lined by active ground-floor uses, and the architecture of state security. Other ‘big’ architecture can also fail in this respect, but the buildings of officialdom are the biggest offenders. Brisbane Magistrates Court is a good example.

As a piece of architecture the building has many qualities. It is striking in its form and scale. A tower of stylish yet transparent authority. The public spaces inside are light and airy, and the courtrooms comfortable and calm, almost intimate in some cases. The building no doubt provides a benchmark for court functionality, for staff and visitors.

As an example of human-scaled urbanism Brisbane Magistrates Court is less impressive. The building is set back from its main address on George St, and in its shape seems to point the other way towards Roma Street Parklands. Yes, sculpture is prominent around the place, but its benefit to the public realm is little more than look-at-me. Good urban design is so much more than public art.

The treatment of the perimeter of the building at ground level on Turbot and Roma Streets is dominated by solid walls and service vehicle access. There are few windows, let alone the retail, commercial or dining that could provide much needed activation to these streets. In this sense the building follows the examples of nearby Brisbane Transit Centre and Queensland Police Headquarters. These monoliths are virtually devoid of street level interest or activities as well, making Roma Street one of the least comfortable pedestrian environments in the city. It is not a place to linger. That a major court and police headquarters should contribute to this status is sadly ironic.

Most strangely, the design for Brisbane Magistrates Court attempts to erode Roma Street’s pedestrian potential even further, by providing the ramp for a pedestrian bridge, yet unbuilt, from the corner of site towards Roma Street Parklands. The desired axis of movement from the parklands to Kurilpa Bridge and GOMA beyond is creditable and necessary. But it is incongruous to us that with Brisbane’s repeated failed experiments in separating people from street level that such a design could be proposed here. Roma Street itself is so much in need of pedestrian traffic. We cross our fingers and hope the bridge never gets built.

Riding a CityCycle is like driving a hire car in a foreign country. Sure it feels a bit different to your own set of wheels back home, but once you get the hang of it, all hire cars (or bikes) are much the same. CityCycle bicycles are, by necessity, designed for all shapes and sizes. Probably then, they present a different cycling experience to each rider. Our CityCycle felt heavy and wobbly at first. In style they are Euro-cycles crossed with an airport trolley and a Segway. They are not the fastest bikes in town either, but that perhaps is the point. These are machines for urban cruising, not road racing. On a CityCycle you glide the city, your belongings in the basket up front, and head high to take in the surroundings.

Bike hire schemes like this can only benefit a city and its population. We certainly count CityCycle as an urban design as well as a transport initiative. This is a cheap, convenient and healthy travel option for short journeys between useful destinations (shops, work, cafes and the like, as opposed to the termini of motorised transportation, the rail stations and car parks – which surely are but means to an end [destination], not the end itself).

The few but predictable complaints aired about CityCycle were only predicable in their short sightedness. Who would choose to have two car parks outside their street café over twenty hire bikes? And $8m for a new urban transport project in the core of a major city seems like good value to us. (Are urban rail, metro or road projects only measured in billions these days?)

The public private partnership arrangement behind this scheme gives the operator advertising rights to scores of new ad signs around town. This is sure to irk a few souls, but if we are being serious then there are bigger design and amenity issues out there than a few billboards. Using an experienced public bike hire operator has advantages too. The allbikesnow iphone application can be used to locate nearby stations, available bikes and parking spaces, and is a hint at the kind of smart technologies that could transform the way we use urban space in a few years.

We like CityCycle. It is a smart and well put together scheme, ambitious in scale but with the potential to change travel behaviour in the inner city for minimal cost. We do however identify two risks that may limit the potential success of the scheme.

First is the well heralded helmet issue. Under Queensland law cyclists must wear a helmet. There are no exceptions for CityCycle. Without even getting into the pro-helmet and anti-helmets arguments, for CityCycle the question is whether the helmet obligation will negate the otherwise excellent convenience of kerbside bike hire stations? Helmets just don’t fit in your back pocket. (If you need an example, we carried around our CityCycle subscriber card for two weeks before trying the scheme out for the first time. Yes it was raining a lot, but we didn’t have a helmet either.)

The other sleeper issue is road space. Now that residents and visitors to the inner city have something handy to cycle (the CityCycle bikes) they need something to cycle on. Away from the excellent but indirect riverside paths, Brisbane’s CBD and inner suburbs are woefully short on the dedicated cycle lanes and other infrastructure that the experts insist is needed before mass cycling can take off. Cycling on city streets just doesn’t feel safe enough for most people, yet. And even where existing marked cycle routes exist they can fall well short of adequate. Adelaide Street to so full of buses and bus stops that its status as a major cycle route across the CBD peninsula is a cruel joke.

But now is your chance Brisbanites. Embrace CityCycle and enjoy its convenience and stylishness for all it’s worth. But Brisbane City Council we think it’s time to get serious about some A-grade cycle routes around the CBD and inner city. Without quality cycle routes this visionary scheme just might not reach its full potential.

The market for "green" office space is alive and well in Brisbane. HQ is yet another big-scale commercial development that has chased down its design and construction green stars. The green wall here is a neat feature, but tiny. Perhaps it's an experiment aimed at greater future things? But the elephant in the room is surely the quoted 500 car spaces. There may only be a handful outside in the public domain, and a large bike parking facility, but 500 cars is 500 cars.

What is interesting about HQ is that the scale of the development is consistent with recent 30ish-storey towers in the CBD. But the massing here presents a completely different urban typology. 12 storeys is not insignificant, but with no podiums these buildings point to a compact urban density, not a skyscraper city.

There's lots of corporate glass but the street edge is well tended by open-air bars and cafes with generous ground level ceiling heights. No monumental corporate architecture here. And who wants to work in a place like that anyway?

Woolloongabba is one of those places so connected by long distance roads and rails (think Logan, Ipswich, Pacific…) that moving around locally is no mean feat, especially under foot or pedal power. Now that the final few hundred metres of the 18km Logan Road has recently been given the Council streetscape makeover treatment, this makes it an island of urban tranquility in a stormy sea of roads.

That this pleasant strip appears to function as a drive-to destination is no surprise then. On the Saturday afternoon of our visit, the ample street parking was all in use, while the street and shops were lightly trafficked. (Noting that as a street of largely pre-motordom buildings there is little off-street parking.)

These days the buildings – mostly two storey brick commercial type and all built hard to the footpath – house antique shops on the south side of the street, and smart new bistros on the north. At this point in history it’s a mix that fits. A stroll, a window shop, and a stop for lunch.

The streetscape works have been designed sympathetically to the function and built heritage here. The pedestrian realm has been enhanced with quality surfaces and street furniture. Crossings and flush kerbs have been installed, and two seating areas book-end the street. Located in the wide central reservation (otherwise used for parking) these spaces avoid cluttering the footpaths, which are already well used for shopping, dining and…walking.

The stand out design feature is probably the antique inspired, playful plastic shades on the streetlights. Some of these shades resemble white umbrellas, and others wine-coloured sitting room lamps from another era.

Tree planting is light, and rightly so. Here awnings on the buildings maintain solid shade cover over the paths. To over-green this street would - unusually for the subtropics - be out of place. This old meets new Gabba character is really what makes Logan Road a bit of a gem. It doesn’t have the busy community vibe of West End, or the tin and timber feel of Paddington. Logan Road has its own place-sense.

The Woolloongabba Urban Development Area across the road looks set to introduce high urban into this neighbourhood. That might be what’s needed to tame the traffic and bring in some people-based revitalisation to the area. As for Logan Road, this street just needs to be left to mature with age.

It’s not unknown for urban designers to use the phrase “lipstick on a pig” to describe average projects tarted up with landscaping, bright colours, and unnecessary bolt-on accessories. This would be true of many recent infrastructure projects in Brisbane.

Go Between Bridge should not, however, get this badge. This steeply curving bridge is a sleek structure, its form bearing some resemblance to the Victoria Bridge, downstream in the city centre. From a distance Go Between is a neat addition to the expanding tapestry of bridges inhabiting the stretch of river between Milton and Gardens Point. So why then did its designers or builders feel the need to embellish Go Between with blue stick-on panels?

And which courageous committee specified that the bridge be lined with concrete crash barriers? Safe yes, but obviously opaque. This is a toll without a view. Surely not the only fencing solution? Notable also are the bulky, overhanging toll gantries marking arrival at the bridge from the south, and the pair of switchback pedestrian ramps. No doubt these ramps comply with disabled access grades, but this results in a level difference between road and path at each end, physically and symbolically separating transport modes and presenting northbound walkers with an ugly view directly into the insides of the Coronation Drive Viaduct. We think this “Go By The Regulations Bridge” shows ugly detailing, like hastily chosen tattoos on an otherwise fine body.

The use of tolls and the price Brisbanites are prepared to pay to cross the river is a whole other question, and not one of urban design. But what is interesting is to compare the three new bridges (Kurilpa, Gateway and Go Between), and one tunnel, crossing the Brisbane River and opened within the past 12 months. For crossing the same river is where the similarities end. The functions and forms of this new infrastructure, as well as the scale and even methods of procurement could not be more different.

These crossings are all long-term investments in cross-river connectivity. Different locations, equal importance. But in a way they are also in competition, firstly for traffic and tolls, but also for a place on the city’s mental map. And in an increasingly crowded list of engineering icons, they are in competition for a place in history. Perhaps Go Between’s mistake is to try too hard.

Grey Street must be a strong contender for Brisbane’s Greatest Street.

Design quality is here in spades, both in concept and in detail. The public domain is smart; the built form is dense but respects the street and its pedestrians, and displays few symptoms of ‘iconic syndrome’; there is ample greenery despite the urban nature of the street; and even the road design is good.

Grey Street has a rich, complementary mix of uses that brings activity and vibrancy to the precinct at all hours. The early morning cyclists love it, as do office workers, late night diners and everyone else in between.

Grey Street demonstrates the value of careful urban management. It is a street that is also a place. This is the deliberate result of design and place-making by people who know how to make and manage attractive human spaces without being hamstrung by regulations or business-as-usual practices.

All of this is rare. Streets often have some of what it takes, but rarely the package.

The legend of Brisbane’s elevation from country town to (wannabe) world city is founded on Expo ’88 and the South Bank renewal that followed. Ironically this success might have been hampered should an earlier ‘master’plan have succeeded in turning Grey Street into a multi-level segregated roadway, with vehicles at ground level and people above. One stage of this folly was actually built and its remains can be seen in front of Rydges Hotel. Thankfully the scheme was soon abandoned. In a way, having this urban archaeology is a good thing. It exists as a sign to the ‘futuristic urbanists’ (and they still exist too) that wacky schemes to reinvent the millennia old nexus of streets, blocks and buildings into skyways and superstructures are headed straight to the dustbin of history.

Grey Street is only set to grow better. A Brisbane Conference and Exhibition Centre extension is underway, reorienting this massive centre to Grey Street and the urban amenity it offers. Not to mention the new ABC Queensland HQ under construction across the street.

Would be urbanists and street-builders take note. Grey Street is Great.

We think 275 George Street and Northbank Plaza is fairly typical of recent CBD corporate developments, including near neighbours in the North Quarter area. Typical architecture: big in scale, stylish enough in materials and detail, and brimming with green stars. Typical urban design too, with some kindness to the public realm (wider footpaths, stone paving, active edges, public space, seating and plenty of activity). Typical but good!

The two office towers are spaced diagonally on the site and the designers have avoided the trap of 1980s-style underused open plazas and instead framed the remaining street edges (including the George/Ann Street corner) with 4 storey built form. At pedestrian level the site perimeter is fully activated and necks have to be craned far back to see where the tower buildings are located within the site.

The new “cross block links” here work well as short cuts, and create an alternative walking experience to the much busier street footpaths. The buildings also frame a wonderful view of the City Hall clock tower from George Street. And what about the possibility of a new off-street route from King George Square all the way to the river, via City Hall, this development, and the Law Courts complex? This must have seemed too far fetched even when the City Centre Master plan was considered just a few years ago, but with City Hall under refurbishment now, and new courts under construction farther down George Street, perhaps this future is not so far fetched after all?

What do you build on a narrow site with an orange-brick heritage church on one boundary, and 20 storey office buildings, styled seemingly on Soviet cereal packets, on all the others? Perhaps a building not dissimilar to this one...

We like the scale of this building, stepping between its 2 and 20 storey neighbours, with only 5000m2 or so of floor area, yet filling its site in a simple rectangular form. It makes a pleasant change to the urban rhythm from more typical podium and tower giants on amalgamated sites. But while the building presents a fuller, built-to-boundary typology, in fact it has been set back from the street to respect and improve views to the church from Ann Street.

Respectful too are the rust colours and fine pattern of clean yet noticeable sun-screens adorning the façade. This is confident architecture, and the building makes a great impression from King George Square. It is a good neighbour, without compromising its own contemporary design.

Oh, and the ubiquitous coffee shop at footpath level, and lack of a superdriveway, help keep the streetfront active with people not delivery vehicles and car park sirens. The new Wesley House fits in, just right, and stands out, just right. Quality citymaking.

When is a street not a street?
When it’s a road.

New streets in existing areas are rare as the urban koala. So we want to make the most of them, right? Celebrate and embellish, Grey Street style?

Without the framing of urban-scale buildings and mature trees (e.g. Teneriffe next door) the new stretch of Skyring Terrace feels and behaves like a suburban road. It’s open and broad and the sweeping curve halfway along, complete with concrete median, is designed for driving. Right now it’s nothing more than a New Farm shortcut.

But it has lots of street potential. Great streets and great neighbourhoods evolve. Building the “dream street” on day one is, like the “dream home” for first-time buyers, not a sensible notion. Skyring Terrace may not be much of a street yet, but in around ten years, it probably will be.

Many people have a favourite song. Maybe even you. Of course there are many reasons why you might have this particular affection. It could be the melody, lyrics, or maybe the instruments. The song might remind you of a special time with a special person, or perhaps the lead singer whom you used to fancy. There are many reasons. You might have a favourite book too, or day of the week, or even a much-loved pair of socks. Other people might think you are mad, but you have your reasons.

There are many reasons too why we might like the Story Bridge.

There’s the form, elegant and shapely, drooping low like a string of lights at a garden party. The lattice of steelwork is at odds with the tall corporate offices opposite, their boardrooms crowding the riverside for the best views, and at odds with the few remaining tin and timber Queenslanders creaking with age below the bridge at KP. It’s at odds with the design of most of the city’s monuments. Big and steel and horizontal in a city of small and low, or big and vertical. But it works. And that’s not the real reason.

There’s the views to consider. The Story Bridge has got the most spectacular digs in town, on the tightest hairpin bend the river can muster, stretching from the cliffs at Bowen Terrace. From the bridge, never mind the bridge climb, the panorama is almost too much to take in. There’s a postcard city vista on one side, suburbs and the bay on the other. From the top, the thin finger of land that is Kangaroo Point seemingly grows from the roots of the bridge below. A sightseeing degustation.

From the other point of view, this bridge is simply one of the most sighted sights around. You can see it from city buildings (if you’re lucky), from the street, from Citycat or kayak on the water, from staked-out vantage points on Riverfire night, and even from the air if a flightpath takes you near the city. But that’s not the reason either.

The real reason we like the Story Bridge is this. It’s a bridge that truly speaks of it time. The intricate steel trusses and rivets are so clearly man-made. To Gen X or Y this is a baffling triumph of skill from a pre-digital age. The Story Bridge is a critical city artery yet by modern standards completely impractical, requiring constant attention to its vast painted surface. The narrow footpaths cause weaving and dodging. In the outside road lanes, steel beams dip below truck height. Flashing signs try to warn off the unwary. It’s big and it’s striking and it’s old. We need it and we like it so it works.