The University of Adelaide has made a play for the old Royal Adelaide Hospital site, calling for a “creative campus” including teaching facilities, an event space and, in collaboration with the Art Gallery of South Australia, a contemporary art museum.
The Art Gallery of South Australia has confirmed it’s interested in the old RAH site which it says offers “exciting opportunities”.
University Vice Chancellor professor Warren Bebbington told InDaily his university had put forward plans for the old RAH site, which is currently the subject of a design competition to help decide its future.
“We’ve obviously put forward some ideas from the university,” Bebbington said. “We think that now there’s developing a health precinct at the west end of North Terrace, it would be nice to have a creative precinct at the east end, which would be an extension of the North Terrace cultural precinct.
“The gallery would like to put in there a contemporary art collection, and if that happened then we would probably put creative writing, architecture, fine arts, a series of our humanities, we would put with that, so that you end up with a place where there’s exhibition space and event space. It’s not far from where WOMAD is.
“That’s what we would do. But obviously we’re not the only contender in this. There’s existing accommodation there, the old nurses’ quarters, and it wouldn’t take a huge amount of work to refurbish them as student accommodation, and I imagine both universities would be interested in that.”
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the Art Gallery confirmed an interest in the site.
“The Art Gallery is considering a number of options for its future and the Royal Adelaide Hospital site offers some exciting opportunities,” the statement said.
The State Government has already noted it wants the old RAH site to make an economic contribution to the east end. Bebbington said a cultural campus could be part of that solution.
“Our interest of course is in it as a cultural education precinct. They of course want to see some economic activity there. If you put students there, accommodation and student programs, then that helps.”
The old RAH is scheduled to close in 2016 when its replacement, currently being constructed in the city’s west, opens for business.
The State Government has launched an open design competition for the old RAH site, which is being coordinated by the Office for Design and Architecture (ODASA).
The university is a member of the competition’s reference group, allowing them to have input and talk to shortlisted entrants. However, competition rules ban the university from formally entering the competition in its own right.
“The project reference group consists of a broad group of stakeholders whose key purpose is to be available at the mid-competition review stage (as required) to answer technical questions from competitors and provide local context information,” an ODASA spokesperson said in a statement.
“Beyond the role of the PRG as noted above, it has no responsibility for evaluating and selecting the shortlisted teams, nor final selection of winner and placed submissions. This is the role of the independent jury, based on the competition evaluation criteria.”
The competition brief makes the university’s expansion plans clear.
It says: “The University is keen to explore all options that might provide additional accommodation within the locality. Specifically the University would like to engage more fully in the North Terrace’s cultural and artistic character –contributing to a high-energy, 24-hour creative common.”
