Tallest Tower Backed for South Australia’s Best-Known Beach
An 18-storey residential tower planned for Glenelg has won support from South Australia’s state architect ahead of a decision-making meeting later this week.
The Karidis Corporation project would be the Adelaide seaside suburb’s tallest project, rising five storeys higher than existing buildings.
If approved by the State Commission Assessment Panel when it meets on March 11, the mixed-use building would have a ground-floor restaurant and seven levels of retirement living apartments, five levels of serviced apartments, one of residential flats, four storeys of above-ground car parking and one level of basement car parking.
The tower, proposed by Adelaide-based developer Karidis Corporation, would have a five-level podium built using brightonlite concrete slab edges with embedded horizontal ribbons.
In a letter endorsing the building, SA government architect Kirsteen Mackay lauded its planned “bold” podium.
“I support the ambition to deliver a high quality development with a residential focus in this location,” she wrote.
She also supported the building’s 18 storeys that would rise on an already cleared 1125sq m site across Colley Terrace from Norfolk Pine-lined Colley Reserve.
An 11km tram, bus or car trip from the Adelaide CBD and founded in 1836—five months after Kingscote on Kangaroo Island—Glenelg is both mainland SA’s first European settlement and the state’s best known beach.
In a report to the assessment panel, senior planning officer for the state Joanne Reid has advised that the 106-apartment project on Colley Terrace would “positively respond to the local context” and not “result in unreasonable impacts on nearby land uses”.
“It is acknowledged that this will be the tallest building in Glenelg and therefore requires significant justification to warrant such an uplift in the built form within the context of its setting,” she advised.
She noted that the 60m tower, designed by Adelaide-based architects Baukultur, would exceed the desired building height of the area’s urban neighbourhood zone by six levels.
“The proposed height is the culmination of offering a sensible number of short- and long-term accommodation options, while offering a high level of amenity and a quantum of car parking that avoids placing additional pressure on the surrounding local street network,” she added.
“The site’s locational attributes together with design features result in the building’s six additional levels not being significantly impactful beyond its setting.”
Reid recommended that the building, which would have two penthouses, be approved by the panel.
The project’s retirement living apartments form Stage 4 of the Avista Glenelg village located on Durham Street that runs parallel to Colley Terrace. A ground floor walkway through the new building would link the two streets.
The next tallest towers in Glenelg are three 13-storey ones that include the Atlantic Tower Motor Inn that when built in 1970 was the tallest building in metropolitan Adelaide.
Peter Karidis, of Karidis Corporation, declined to comment ahead of the SCAP meeting.
