Brisbane’s primary civic square faces the 1930s City Hall and was created incrementally by acquiring and demolishing buildings that were once situated across the street from the council chambers. The square has seen a recent makeover, following major works to construct an underground busway station beneath its public space. Much of King George Square is open and paved, to fit its official role as a venue for events (even rallies and protests), but the redeveloped square also makes room for more contemporary features of urban public space, including a restaurant, a coffee kiosk and a large roofed ‘deck’. The design of the square has also been shaped by major pedestrian thoroughfares that bisect the space. It also contends with significant level changes.
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King George Square
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3.0 (1) |
about the listing
| address | King George Square, Brisbane, Qld, 4000 |
| year | 2009 |
| cost | $28m |
| citymaker(s) | Brisbane City Council, Urbis |
User reviews
Average user rating from: 1 user(s)
A lesson from the early days of the new King George Square, opened on a sizzling early-summer afternoon in late 2009, is that hard-paved spaces get hot under the Queensland sun. This is not to say that it’s wrong to have such a place in the city (although some critics have said just that), rather that in subtropical climes it might pay to do outdoor events say on a Friday evening, when the square is busy with passers by, the sun is disappearing, a stiff breeze is blowing, and the square’s colourful lighting is taking effect.
Many were quick to write off the new square there and then for its supposed lack of shade and its high lunchtime temperatures. In actual fact KGS includes a soaring new roof structure in one corner, sheltering a viewing deck and restaurant below. Its trees will need time to take hold, it is true, but there is shade. It’s just that someone else is probably sitting there. And that dazzling stone surface will surely fade.
Harsh comment was also aimed at the decision to throw a number of buildings and structures into the square, not least two large busway station portals at the Adelaide Street perimeter, not a council initiative but arguably overenthusiastic in their architectural statement. The square’s other prominent structure - the deck / gallery / restaurant - is certainly large but it probably does us a favour by hiding the mostly unremarkable buildings along the east edge of the square.
King George Square is Brisbane’s bold leap into a 21st century urban landscape. It certainly contrasts with the classical stone columns of City Hall, and comparisons with Melbourne’s Federation Square are inevitable. But even City Hall has it’s early-modern elegance and ultimately the contemporary design features of the redeveloped square - the terraces of seating, the lights, the glass plinths holding up statues including King George V himself – won’t determine the how successful the space becomes. Success will be forged by the way people use and respond to the space.
Visiting late one afternoon KGS was busy, criss-crossed by fast-paced commuters. It also hosted a Free Tibet protest, catered for tourists snapping pictures of themselves in front of City Hall, as well as teenagers, readers, people watchers, eaters, talkers, and let’s not forget the bus station and car park operating efficiently beneath.
King George Square has to be a ‘something for everyone’ public space and it can’t be at all easy to design and build such complicated, and symbolic, infrastructure. We say be patient, avoid times of hot summer sunshine, and enjoy the square for what it is.
