Grey Street is the ‘spine’ of South Bank’s urban precinct, host to its principal commercial, retail and residential buildings, and major connecting street to the wider city. The area has been comprehensively redeveloped since Expo ’88, first with South Bank’s famous parklands, later followed by significant mixed-use urban renewal achievements. South Bank Corporation, planning authority and ‘manager’ of Grey Street, has a vision for the street to be ‘one of Australia's most distinctive boulevards’. Grey Street is the address to many of Queensland’s major cultural institutions.
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Grey Street
Written by cityadmin2
June 14, 2010
Hits: 863
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4.0 (1) |
about the listing
| address | Grey Street, South Bank, Qld 4101 |
| citymaker(s) | South Bank Corporation, others |
User reviews
Average user rating from: 1 user(s)
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.
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