The $100m civic building that is defining Maroochydore’s new CBD has been described as an exorbitant “ivory tower” that isn’t a good look in the current economic climate.
Members of the public have sparked a debate and made their voices heard as the Sunshine Coast City Hall nears completion.
And many indicate the project fails the pub test.
As reported by Sunshine Coast News, the finishing touches are being applied to the commanding 10-storey building, designed by Cottee Parker Architects, in the lead-up to a mid-December official opening.
Some see the City Hall as the jewel in the crown of the Maroochydore City Centre – a building that makes a statement and tells the world that the Sunshine Coast means business.
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The Sunshine Coast Council website says the design is inspired by the forms and colours of the landmark Glass House Mountains, intended to “fit seamlessly into its built and natural environment”.
As a flagship for current and future large-scale building construction, sustainability is at its core, integrating renewable energy generation through solar power, green design principles and smart building solutions.
But not everyone is impressed.
Most scathing was Australian Pensioners and Superannuants League Caloundra branch president Frank Gower.
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“The money should be spent on community infrastructure and not on an ivory tower,” he told Sunshine Coast News.
“It’s a cost that is exorbitant. It’s a been a pipe dream by our mayor and councillors.”
Mr Gower said that, in the current economic climate, the cost was not a good look for the Sunshine Coast.
The money would have been better spent on providing social housing and grassroots infrustructure such as providing better facilities and more funding for community halls.
“All the small halls are battling to find money,” Mr Gower said.
“Hundreds of people go through CCSA hall in Nutley Street (Caloundra) every year. There should be infrustructre for those people – a place where they can meet and talk.”
Council-owned buildings, including the former Caloundra City Council Chambers, also were being underutilised and could be put to better use for ratepayers.
Unsuccessful mayoral candidate in 2020, Don Innes made his point on the design on the Sunshine Coast News Facebook page: “… This isn’t any jewel, sadly. A building for administration aiming for opulence. It doesn’t know what it wants to be – and says far more about the SCRC (Sunshine Coast Regional Council) and the designers’ inability to articulate the Sun-e Coast in built form. They know nothing of what we are, and if the billion-dollar beaches aren’t our ‘jewel’, God help us all.”
John van Berkel agreed: “Pride of the Sunshine Coast? And here I was thinking that honour belonged to our beautiful beaches and hinterland. Silly me. Architecturally it’s hardly something Frank Gehry (the architect of buidlings including the Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain and Walt Disney Concert Hall in California) would be proud of. It resembles something more akin to Soviet-era Eastern bloc Europe.”
But Grant Wallace had a big-picture perspective on the building: “If it brings business to the coast, I don’t mind.”
A barrage of remarks that were even less complimentary of the design and more disappointed in the overall cost of the new City Hall saw the Sunshine Coast Community Board Facebook page turn off the comments function on the post.
But not until Mark Wadhams had his say: “Nice of council to spend our rates and taxes on swanky new offices for themselves. I will look forward to the above inflation rate rises over the next decade warm in the knowledge that our self-serving public servants are enjoying sea views from their new roof top restaurant. I mean how can we expect them to work in anything less?”
Traci Lee added: “So many Sunshine Coast locals sleeping in their cars, yet our Council spent $100 million on new ‘swanky’ offices. How many Sunshine Coast families/individuals could have been helped with a fraction of this $$.
And Glenn Casey hasn’t been won over by the building design: “Reminds of one of those Commonwealth Bank tin money boxes from my childhood.”
Sunshine Coast News has approached the business community for comments.
