Adelaide Convention Centre

{{Short description|Convention center in Adelaide, Australia}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}}

{{Use Australian English|date=December 2013}}

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| caption = Adelaide Convention Centre at night on the banks of the River Torrens.

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| address = North Terrace, Adelaide

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| opened_date = 15 June 1987

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| architect = John Andrews

| architecture_firm = John Andrews International

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| ren_architect = Larry Oltmanns

| ren_firm = 2001 extension: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
2012 extensions: Woods Bagot and Vx3{{cite web|title=River banking on a new Torrens icon|url=http://www.news.com.au/top-stories/river-banking-on-a-new-torrens-icon/story-e6frfkp9-1225992584190|access-date=28 November 2012}}

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| website = {{URL|http://www.adelaidecc.com.au/}}

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The Adelaide Convention Centre is a large convention centre on North Terrace, Adelaide, South Australia. It was the first purpose-built convention centre to be built in Australia.{{cite web |url=http://www.adelaidecc.com.au/about-us/our-purpose |title=Our Purpose |publisher=Adelaide Convention Centre |access-date=9 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110821152414/http://www.adelaidecc.com.au/about-us/our-purpose |archive-date=21 August 2011 |url-status=dead }} Along with several other venues, the Adelaide Convention Centre is administered and staffed by the Adelaide Venue Management Corporation, a subsidiary of the South Australian Government.

History

File:Adelaide Convention Centre, West Building.jpg

The convention centre was designed by John Andrews and constructed over part of the Adelaide railway station, together with the Hyatt Regency Hotel (now the InterContinental Hotel), Exhibition Hall and an office block in the 1980s as part of the Adelaide Station and Environs Redevelopment (ASER) project.{{Citation | author1=John Andrews International |author2=Andrews, John |author-link2=John Andrews (architect) | title=Adelaide station environs redevelopment : design report 1984 | publication-date=1984 | publisher=John Andrews International | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/17966155 | access-date=13 March 2019 }}{{Cite news |url=http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/hyatt-to-fetch-100-million/story-e6freo8c-1111116189292 |title=Hyatt to fetch $100 million |author=Meredith Booth |access-date=9 August 2011 |date=28 April 2008 |newspaper=The Advertiser|location=Adelaide }} It has been rebuilt and extended upon a few times since its original construction in 1987.Adelaide Convention Centre, 1987-1997 : decade of distinction : programme. Programme for dinner, held on 13 June 1997 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Adelaide Convention Centre. http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/17022809 In 1999 an extension was plannedSouth Australia. Parliament. Public Works Committee (1999). In Adelaide Convention Centre extension : final report; the 105th report of the Public Works Committee, October 1999. Government Printer, [Adelaide, S. Aust.] and in late 2001 it was unveiled.14 October 2003 (Property Australia – ABIX via COMTEX) The extension to the Adelaide Convention Centre has won the 2003 South Australia Property Council of Australia Rider Hunt Award. The centre ... http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/117642718 It was designed by Larry Oltmanns who was a design partner with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill at the time.[http://www.som.com/content.cfm/adelaide_convention_centre_expansion Adelaide Convention Centre Expansion] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120211172027/http://www.som.com/content.cfm/adelaide_convention_centre_expansion |date=11 February 2012 }}. Retrieved 9 August 2011. The project won the Royal Australian Institute of Architects 2002 Awards of Merit: BHP Colourbond Steel Award, Interior Architecture and New Building.

SOM's expansion and renovation of Adelaide's Convention Centre reconnected historic parts of the city to the waterfront. Built on space assembled from air rights over a rail yard, the new facility shares a site with the Old and New South Australia State Parliament Houses, the Adelaide Exhibition Hall, the Festival Centre, and the Adelaide railway station – Casino. The SOM project, was completed with Adelaide architects Woods Bagot, and conformed to the Adelaide Riverbank Master Plan. Its "rational cooking system", the largest of any convention centre in the world, is equipped to serve 4,000 dinners in 20 minutes. The centre's main Plenary Hall can house up to 3,500 people in full convention mode.

Looking over Torrens Lake, the centre is home to most of Adelaide's major conventions.{{cite news | url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/05/26/1053801325821.html|title=Stand-in GG begins official duties|newspaper=The Age|date=26 May 2003|access-date=8 August 2011}} It has also been the location of some significant commemorations of Australian icons.The grand Bradman dinner, in honour of Sir Donald Bradman's 90th birthday, 27th August 1998, Adelaide Convention Centre[menu].http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/28204815 AVCon, an annual anime and video games convention was held at the Adelaide Convention Centre from 2009{{cite web |url=http://www.avcon.org.au/2011/about |title=About AVCon |access-date=9 August 2011 }} until 2019, and again in 2023 following a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has since been relocated to Adelaide Showground.

An expansion was announced in 2011. Making the announcement, the Premier of South Australia at the time, Mike Rann, said that work would begin that year on the first stage of the $350 million expansion abutting the Morphett Street Bridge and be completed in 2014. Stage 1 would include a {{convert|4300|m2|sqft|adj=on}} multi-purpose concert space, meeting spaces and a 1000-seat ballroom over the railway tracks. Rann said Stage 2, scheduled to be completed by mid 2017, would feature a distinctive high-tech glass "arrow" structure capable of seating 3,500 people. Woods Bagot and Larry Oltmanns of Vx3 were appointed as the design team for the $350 million expansion in February 2011.{{cite web|title=Adelaide Convention Centre Announces Expansion Project Team|url=http://www.newsmaker.com.au/news/7295|access-date=27 November 2012}}{{cite news|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-06-29/convention-centre-upgrade-to-start-in-september/2775814|title=Convention Centre upgrade to start in September|publisher=ABC News|location=Australia|date=29 June 2011|access-date=8 August 2011}}{{cite web |url=http://www.infrastructure.sa.gov.au/major_projects/adelaide_riverbank_precinct/adelaide_convention_centre |title=Adelaide Convention Centre |publisher=Department of Planning, Transport & Infrastructure |access-date=9 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930163653/http://www.infrastructure.sa.gov.au/major_projects/adelaide_riverbank_precinct/adelaide_convention_centre |archive-date=30 September 2011 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|title=Adelaide Convention Centre-Vx3 Website |url=http://www.vx3arch.com/crnt2201.html |access-date=27 November 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107151620/http://www.vx3arch.com/crnt2201.html |archive-date=7 January 2014 }}

See also

References

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Further reading

  • {{cite web|url=https://www.adelaidefestival.com.au/media/2255/af19-guide-and-planner.pdf|website=SA Memories|publisher=State Library of South Australia|title=Torrens Lake from the City Bridge|format=photograph|first=Jenny|last=Scott|others=Text by SLSA|date=2006}} Features Adelaide Festival Centre and Adelaide Convention Centre, with information about the design and construction of both.