Brisbane Transit Centre to be demolished

The Queensland Government has announced that the existing Brisbane Transit Centre at Roma Street, arguably Brisbane’s ugliest building both inside and out will be demolished to make way for a new, modern transit centre as part of an update to the BaT underground alignment which will be released in the coming days.

The Bus and Train Tunnel (BaT) project has had several redesigns over the last few months including a shortening of the tunnel from 5 kilometres to now only 4 kilometres long.

Artist Impression of the proposed transit centre.

Premier Campbell Newman said the project – altered after more than 560 public submissions were received – would create jobs.

“Realigning the BaT tunnel after listening to local people has given us a great opportunity to build a new, modern transit centre,” he said. “The BaT project was already set to create 1600 construction jobs and now the redevelopment of the transit centre will create still more jobs.”

Transport Minister Scott Emerson said the transit centre, often voted one of Brisbane’s ugliest buildings, would not be missed and we now had a chance to build an “iconic gateway” to the city.

The previous BaT alignment:

In June the government backed down from plans to close Dutton Park Station, after a solution was found to design problems impacting the southern end of the alignment.

Brisbane Transit Centre which is owned by GPT and Lend Lease currently has over 13,300 square metres of B grade office space vacant.

Opinion

A new world city deserves some pretty ‘out there’ architecture. This is a perfect opportunity to shock and inspire Brisbanites as well as the rest of Australia and the world for that matter with something truly unique.

For many, the Brisbane Transit Centre is the first port of call to Brisbane and its current derelict state isn’t just embarrassing but also non-functional for both the surrounding streetscape and inside the complex as well.

As part of the Brisbane Idea’s Festival, Conrad Gargett Architecture designed an idea which proposes to fill in and bridge the gap between Petrie Terrace and Roma Street parklands by building over the railway lines – similar to what they did for Federation Square in Melbourne.

A much grander proposal like a land bridge and new Brisbane Transit Centre should be proposed as part of the BaT station integration.