Soaring temperatures reaching 56.3 degrees in Brisbane’s King George Square yesterday have seen the designers burned by critics.
The $28 million redesign suffered unparalleled heat yesterday while critics lambasted the designers, Urbis, for failing to provide enough shade.
"Brisbane residents have clearly said the square is too hot and they would have preferred more green space in the final design - and Labor councillors have always agreed," Labor Opposition leader Shayne Sutton said.
Journalists from Brisbane’s Courier Mail yesterday published a video of an egg frying on the concrete in the square.
However, designer Susanne Georgii told Architecture & Design that the plaza, adjacent to Brisbane City Hall, was “not meant to be a shady oasis”.
“If someone is looking for a shady oasis they should go to Roma Street Parkland,” Georgii said. “King George Square is a completely different premise.”
The temperature was so high in Brisbane yesterday that you could have “probably cooked that egg in King Street Mall”, Georgii said.
This view is echoed by Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman, who has defended the square from criticism.
"The square was designed for large public gatherings, such as the lighting of the Christmas tree where there was standing room only this year," he said.
"It is not a park so I would expect the temperature there was the same as any other solid footpath in Brisbane," he told the Courier Mail.
If Urbis had created a square in front of City Hall, filled with trees and other shade-providing features would simply have detracted from the building, Georgii said.
