Our Place has released a new architectural render showing the devastating impact the Cox designed AFL stadium will have on Hobart’s celebrated urban heritage.
According to Our Place spokesperson, Roland Browne, “You just can’t hide how huge and how utterly inappropriately sited this stadium will be. The new design is even bigger and far, far worse in its impacts than even the original stadium promised by the Rockliff government.”
“At 54 metres high, it is 25% higher than the original proposal, three storeys higher than the Grand Chancellor (42 metres) and only six metres short of the height of the Tasman Bridge (60 metres).”
“Every Tasmanian who cares about our city’s unique beauty will be horrified.”
Noting that Our Place’s renders of the original proposal have subsequently been proven to be correct, Mr Browne said, “The new render is being released because Cox Architects failed to release any image that shows the actual impact of their gigantic stadium on Hobart—and for good reason. A building of this immense size is clearly wrong for Hobart’s historic waterfront and highly destructive of what makes our city celebrated.
Mr Browne pointed out that the render is not an artist’s impression but is professionally produced by architects using standard methods on the basis of publicly available information about Cox’s proposed stadium design.
“The river of taxpayers money is already pouring out of Tasmania to pay for this stadium with mainland firm Cox Architects being paid $37.9 million of Tasmanian taxpayers’ money—that’s $37.9 million less jobs, health care and homes going to the biggest mainland companies—to produce a design that destroys the urban heritage of Hobart and the spiritual importance of the Cenotaph.”
Mr Browne said no design or engineering professional privately believes that the stadium can be built for $715 million.
“Just as the Premier was wrong about the height and size of the stadium, he’s also going to be proven wrong about the costs. That’s why we need to stop this stadium before it threatens our already failing health, housing and education systems.”