Since the start of 2021, a single question has been persistently on the lips of our clients nation-wide: how can we bring life back to the CBD? Post-pandemic our capital cities would need much stronger reasons for being the centre of business. In Adelaide, we have been helping Charter Hall in a high-profile quarter of the city, just a stone’s throw from Rundle Mall. 60 King William Street is the largest commercial real estate project in the Adelaide CBD, with the Cox Architecture-designed mixed-use tower housing more than 40,000 sqm of office space and 3,600 sqm of retail across its 14 storeys.

Right Angle embarked on a deep research dive to gain an intimate knowledge of the local retail landscape – from its premium commercial lobbies, to fine grain laneways and everything in between – to frame up our proposition for Charter Hall. While the 3,500 on-site workers projected to be employed in the building would have once provided healthy footfall for the retail, the pandemic had changed things. Workers had become more discerning: with where they shop, who they work for and with how they spend their downtime on a workday.

We proposed a response whereby retail and amenity were a big part of the reason for workers to head into the office, because it uplifted their day-to-day experience by providing genuine convenience, social infrastructure and healthy environments. Our retail vision outlined three clear opportunities for the site: to become a retail neighbourhood, rather than just a commercial one; to create a healthy destination that is restorative for workers; and to build a precinct that is connected with neighbouring CBD destinations.

With three street frontages – a formal King William Street entrance, an internal arcade that continues Adelaide’s long history or arcade architecture, and a more intimate laneway frontage of James Place, the retail mix needed to define different atmospheres and tempos, while still feeling cohesive as a whole. To do this, we worked alongside the design team to match the spatial and material qualities with the aspirations of the retail experience to ultimately create something that felt distinctly Adelaidean.