Adelaide Convention Centre

The Adelaide Convention Centre is a large convention centre on North Terrace, Adelaide, Australia. It was the first purpose-built convention centre to be built in Australia.

The convention centre was constructed over part of the Adelaide Railway Station, together with the Hyatt Regency Hotel (now the InterContinental Hotel), Exhibition Hall and an office block in the 1980s as part of the Adelaide Station and Environs Redevelopment (ASER) project. It has been rebuilt and extended upon a few times since its original construction in 1987. In 1999 an extension was planned and in late 2001 it was unveiled. It was designed by Larry Oltmanns who was a design partner with SOM at the time. The project won the Royal Australian Institute of Architects 2002 Awards of Merit: BHP Colourbond Steel Award, Interior Architecture and New Building.

SOM’s expansion and renovation of Adelaide’s Convention Centre reconnected historic parts of the city to the waterfront. Built on space assembled from air rights over a rail yard, the new facility shares a site with the Old and New South Australia State Parliament Houses, the Adelaide Exhibition Hall, the Festival Centre, and the Adelaide Railway Station - Casino. The SOM project, was completed with Adelaide architects Woods-Bagot Pty Ltd.,and conformed to the Adelaide Riverbank Master Plan. Its "rational cooking system", the largest of any convention centre in the world, is equipped to serve 4,000 dinners in 20 minutes. The centre's main Plenary Hall can house up to 3,500 people in full convention mode.

Looking over Torrens Lake, the centre is home to most of Adelaide's major conventions. It has also been the location of some significant commemorations of Australian icons. AVCon, an annual anime and video games convention has been held at the Adelaide Convention Centre since 2009.

The most recent expansion was announced in 2011. Woods Bagot Pty Ltd and Larry Oltmanns of Vx3 Architects.Strategists.Urban Designers were appointed as the design team for the $350 million expansion in February of 2011.

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