Published on Tuesday, 27 March 2018 at 4:27:56 PM
Detailed design work on Rock’s Laneway will progress after Council decided on a preferred design concept for the space.
At today’s Ordinary Meeting of Council ‘option one’ was adopted which will allow the City of Greater Geraldton to move forward with the project that will see the Rock’s building on Marine Terrace transformed into a laneway.
The chosen concept design proposes a “grotto”, providing a green wall, an elevated “crow’s nest”, open walls for art/projection and a long bench timber decked terrace for informal seating.
City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn said the project was bigger than just creating a laneway.
“This project will open up a number of options to create vital links in our CBD,” he said.
“Not just between Marine Terrace and the Foreshore, but this project has the potential to create a connection through Post Office Lane to Chapman Road and the vicinity of the Geraldton Regional Art Gallery and other businesses in the vicinity.
“This innovative project aligns perfectly with the City Centre Revitalisation Plan and the Growing Greater Geraldton Growth Plan by redefining our city centre to unlock its full potential.”
A versatile event space is included in the design, which can facilitate temporary food vans and cater for art, music and other community events with storage of seating and tables.
The preferred concept also allows for consideration of smart cities technology capabilities including free wifi, audio and visual capacity and potentially renewable energy driven lighting.
Mayor Van Styn said the design also upholds the integrity of the Rock’s building.
“We feel it is very important to preserve some original elements of the Rock’s building as we know how much of an icon it has been in our community for many years,” he said.
“The design for the laneway will keep the side walls as well as the original roof trusses.
“We think this project will create a very exciting flexible urban space with the potential for it to become an evolutionary town square providing a multi-use area for all sorts of different pop up events.
“This project has been very well received by the community and we are excited to see it come to fruition,” Mayor Van Styn added.
Works to prepare the building have begun and further works to transform the space will take place later this year with completion set for next financial year.
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