City residents claim new tower robs daylight
East End residents want an immediate construction halt and “targeted redesign” of a nearby student accommodation tower.
Long-term Alpha Apartments resident Dr Andrew van Essen AM claims that the five metres between his apartment building and Journal Student Living’s planned 21-storey development at 274-275 North Terrace would block his access to natural light.
He was backed by other residents in calling on the government, developer and architect to “urgently reassess” the design of the section directly facing four existing residential floors, saying it would allow “reasonable” daylight, privacy and liveability to be preserved.
“Our homes are not incidental amenity on an architectural drawing. They are where people live, sleep and have built their lives for more than 20 years. Everyone has signed off on this development, but nobody has stood inside our homes to assess the impact,” he said, saying residents only found out about the plans by filing an Freedom of Information request.
“We are talking about finding a solution for four floors and not abandoning accommodation for more than 1,000 students.”
According to the Department for Housing and Urban Development, the accommodation building site was purchased following a strategic land sale by the state government through Renewal SA.
You might like
Located on the corner of Frome Street and North Terrace, the $400 million development is being carried out by Journal Student Living and will feature a public plaza and ground-floor retail and hospitality.
The $400 million project, designed by COX Architecture, will include a mix of individual and shared accommodation, communal spaces, open-plan study areas, a cinema, an entertainment complex, shared kitchen and dining facilities, a library and a gym.
However, van Essen said residents are calling for an immediate pause of construction on the section facing the Alpha Apartments, an independent daylight modelling assessment for impacted floors and the publication of all daylight, shadow, privacy, overlooking and residential-amenity assessments relied on for approval.
Stay informed, daily
They are also calling for the publication of the Government Architect’s design advice and the project’s response to that, as well as an on-site meeting with the Planning Minister, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Government Architect, SCAP representatives, Journal Student Living and COX Architecture.
Among the potential design changes van Essen said residents are calling for include increasing the amount of space between the two buildings, setting back the corresponding levels of the new building and reshaping the section of floorplate facing Vaughan Place.
They are also suggesting relocating the occupied windows to prevent direct overlooking, he said, as well as creating openings to preserve daylight, changing façade materials to improve reflected daylight and providing permanent privacy and daylight mitigation.
“We support more people living in Adelaide, and we support high-quality student accommodation. What we do not support is solving one housing need by damaging existing homes,” van Essen said.
“We are asking the Premier, the Planning Minister, Renewal SA, the Government Architect, SCAP and the developer to come into our apartments and stand at our windows.”
A government spokesperson said the development “was granted approval by the state’s highest independent planning body and the State Government supports this decision”
“Anyone living in the heart of a capital city should not be surprised to see development of this scale in the CBD. That’s exactly where we want and expect it to happen, subject to the planning rules that apply to every project,” he said.
Journal Student Living was contacted for comment.
Want to see more stories from InDaily SA in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily SA as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily SA". That's it.
