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Newcastle City Council resolved last night to demolish the heritage listed TPI House.
The iconic building at 231 King Street sits across from The University of Newcastle’s City campus and Civic Park.
Council agreed to lodge a development application (DA) to call for tenders for its demolition, as well as applications to subdivide the land to allow additional space for future road widening or a cycleway.
The property will be for sale at the completion of the DA.
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where not aloud to demolish heritage homes why building
So first it was the trees and now more Newcastle History is hitting the dust.
What on earth does this Council think its doing to OUR heritage.
And what is the use of having Heritage listing if the council can ignore the order? So much for listings, does this mean that anyone who owns a place that is heritage listed that they can pull it down too? I think not.
So I guess the old adage is true, there is one rule for some and another rule for others.
I’m all for keeping heritage, but from what I’ve seen, I think this is a good decision.
The building looks unsafe. That means that no one in their right mind would take up a tenancy there. That’s a loss of income, especially in terms of the upkeep of the building. So the building decays anyway, or takes much needed funds away from services. We want Council to do the right thing with our money, don’t we?
Are there better ways of keeping this history alive and available? Surely a building with a rich history can be preserved in a non-brick way.
I fully appreciate heritage, but sometimes difficult decisions have to be made.
I do agree that the average Joe has never had a fair chance when it comes to heritage listed buildings, but I do think at times the council does has some forward and future thinking when it comes to buildings like this.
It can also come down at times to common sense financially in up keeping and repair of older buildings as opposed to rebuilding newer and more energy efficient buildings.
It should not be looked at losing a part of the cities past, but more rebuilding something to represent the present as a marker of the current time for the future!