THE GORGE HOTEL DEBACLE

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Don Defenderfer’s letter in The Examiner is a reminder of just what is at stake when we ‘develop something’. Usually something is given up, sometimes something is won and oftentimes a great deal is overlooked. 

The decision by Council to allow, notionally allow, a grand scheme to proceed towards some kind resolution in the fullness of time says more about ‘civic power’ than it ever might about a hotel with tourism potential.

Don Defenderfer’s concerns, thinking about amenity, prettiness, and what is thought to belong to a citizenry, rings true. Yet somehow the issues are more expansive, more extensive, than aesthetics and public amenity.

When the penny actually drops it’ll be realised that $50Million might well turn into ‘unknown gazillions’ and then something might give.

When someone gets down to doing the geophysics, dealing with eco-sustainability, confronting the risks of environmental change, researching the technologies, the projected outcome might yet change.

Don Defenderfer might be right, skyscrapers may find their placedness elsewhere and that might even be realized, albeit‘a bit later on’. 

On the evidence, what is actually on paper might never be built, or even be buildable. So much for civic authority. Curiously, Cr. Soward somewhat outrageously drew a connection between this proposal and Sydney's Opera House. If only he had done some research before exposing his foolish metaphor.

The winning 'design proposal' for the Opera House is not what sits on Bennelong Point as it was 'unbuildable'. The point here is that 'excellence in design' rests upon much, much more than visual aesthetics. Aesthetics are not insignificant but there is more to consider. At the time in Sydney there even proponents for a 'big box' on the site – a cheaper alternative. So let's be careful about metaphors distant in time – and from a different geographically.

No matter how hard they try, council bureaucrats cannot, and have not, realized 'excellence in design' in this instance in a 21st C context. Typically, given the subjectivity, 'functionaries' are hard pressed to divine and define, such a thing as design excellence under the umbrella of local governance in Tasmania. Not only are the people all so often ill equipped, the cultural paradigm within which they work mitigates against such subjective assessments. In so much as the criteria has not been articulated for them, nor is it an imperative, so what chance might they have?  

At the 'approval meeting' a broad spectrum of socio-political points of view exposed themselves with the subliminal imperative to approve quite evident. Some of this approaches being exotic. For instance, characterizing 'a hotel' as replacement for say a timber-mill after a 'deep soul search' is interesting and ideologically revealing. Then there is the rhetoric and extravagant  notions of 'money triggers', 'trickle downs' and 'economic boosts' to measure up for credibility.

All this, arguably, comes from the imperatives of aspirational fiscal wealth, not cultural sensibilities, not ecological sustainability, nor environmental sensibilities either. Without such things the decision making can only be one-dimensional. Likewise, all the things that make for inclusive 'placescaping and placemaking' gets to be left out in favour the anti-local imperatives, in favour of 'everywhereness'.

Excellence in design is won via attention to the full spectrum of issues. These things come up as 'the deciders' listen in to the information grabs that seek to change their already made up minds – way too late. 

Interestingly, elsewhere, the baseline for the approval of such a project would be that it did not impose upon the community's infrastructure. This is reported as requiring environmental sustainability for one thing.

Therefore, given the possibilities of current technologies, such projects need to be able to demonstrate that a given percentage of its own 'energy needs' will be generated. After that, it would need to 'manage' all its water needs and treatments on site – and there might well be other implications to do with the project's 'environmental footprint'. 

However, here and with this project, for whatever reason, none of this has had any overt consideration to speak of.

Given the outcomes and what has led to them thus far, it seems that it would be both appropriate and relevant to disband the in-house planning process and ideally forthwith. Having done so, independent, dispassionate arms-length, and free and fearless expert planning advice might more easily be found – entertainable even. If such an initiative were to be aimed at fulfilling the promise of locally oriented placescaping it is an strategy worth implementing.

Indeed, 'planning authority' might turn out to be what communities   could look to in 'placemaking'.                                           

Ray Norman

Launceston

.LETTERS TO THE EXAMINER

The Gorge Hotel .... Nobody seems to be raising the issue that everyone is talking about: the proposed Gorge Hotel development is way too tall for the intimate location it is planned for. Its approval would be a big mistake. ......... At 39 metres (nine storeys), it would be the tallest building in Launceston, far taller than the Grand Chancellor and the Mantra Charles which are both about 25-metres high. ........The Gorge Hotel would be totally inappropriate and out of character for the low-key streetscape that currently extends along Paterson Street. The Hotel would block the views north up the Tamar from residents in West Launceston and would also block the historic view of Launceston if one were to look down the Tamar from the north..........The area is already a bottleneck for Launceston College a nd TAFE traffic and with 145 rooms, a 500-person conference centre, a 200-seat bar and restaurant, functions rooms, spa and gym it would add an unacceptable level of traffic snarl for any locals heading to Trevallyn or into town. ....... Do we really want Launceston to look like everywhere else and lose its sense of place? Do we want a mini Gold Coast on historic Paterson Street? ..... The simple truth, this skyscraper does not belong in this part of Launceston and its name would degrade the beauty and serenity of the nearby Cataract Gorge. .......Don Defenderfer, Launceston.

Gorge Hotel IN support of the letters by Don Defenderfer and Bill Carney regarding the proposed Gorge Hotel (The Examiner, June 14). ............... The developer may make a motza but the city will lose part of its soul. I recall my experience at Darling Harbour last year when I attended a conference at the Maritime Museum. ............... I had not been there for about a decade and the change was dramatic and awful. ............... The place is now just visually overwhelmed by a wall of glass towers which have utterly destroyed the sense of the place. ............... The body of water is now secondary if that. I could not wait to get away from the place, the dump. Bunga Bungaroo I have termed it in dishonour of that Italian greaseball's idea of having a good time. ............... It's not the hotel per se but the optics of the tower. ............... At least the developer of the Grand Chancellor made an effort to sync its facade with the aesthetics of the surrounding buildings. ............... This proposed monstrosity is the product of a lack of imagination and the power of design graphics programs. ............... The latter can generate vast quantities of aesthetic junk very quickly and cheaply and are perfectly suited mainly to marketing. ............... Michael Seward, South Launceston. 

New hotel at the Gorge FIRSTLY may I say that I applaud what Errol Stewart and Joe Chromy have done in and around Launceston. ............... However, the new project from the latter does raise some concerns. ............... It appears that the final building will resemble a towering reflective cliff face but it's the traffic problems which are concerning. ............... Being on the corner of Margaret and Paterson Streets, when it is being built I can see absolute chaos. ............... Margaret Street is already a nightmare at different times of the day and Paterson Street is the only road to Trevallyn unless one drives down the West Tamar road and turns off there. As the council has had no idea how to solve the gridlock from Mowbray all the way down Wellington Street to Kings Meadows I guess they haven't had a thought in their heads regarding this large development and the traffic chaos it will cause. ............... It would be very interesting to hear what they intend to do but as it seems it's all too late for people to present a petition or raise more objections. ............... I guess it's a done deal like many other things we hear about after it's all done and dusted. Giving car parks and land to UTAS springs to mind. ................ Glennis Sleurink, Launceston.