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Canberra Today 14°/16° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

No Pisco Sour, but ‘revitalisation’ aplenty at ANU

WHILE the ACT arts community’s collective minds were on the imminent demise of ANU Arts Centre and other beloved facilities at Union Court, the University’s Vice Chancellor, nobel laureate Brian Schmidt, was more concerned with making sure that students could “eat, drink and be merry”.

Professor Schmidt checks out Mr Papa
In a move, he told onlookers gathered at Union Court this morning, that would ensure a closer contact between the campus and downtown Canberra. Schmidt said the planned demolition and construction process would not leave students high and dry.

On the contrary, the University is planning a Braddon-style “pop-up” village, featuring well-known Canberra businesses, to operate close to University Avenue near the Street Theatre.

This will come into action during the $220 million “revitalisation”, with “a bunch of tenants coming in, including current tenants”.

Bearing in mind that that there were always “a bunch of 20 year olds running around” in need of entertainment, Schmidt said, there would be a new bar run by The Burley Group and a new space for live music events.

Pop-up manager Steve Turner was on hand to help the Vice Chancellor introduce two of the new tenants; hotdog specialists, Broddogs and Peruvian sandwich masterminds Mr Papa. There was no danger that students would be left starving and in fact, he promised, “it will be all happening in the next 5 to 6 months”.

Architectural mockup of revitalised Union Court
The revitalisation, media were told, would begin in the middle of this year and take place over 18 months with the new complex, focused on the Chifley Library to include new teaching and student buildings, a purpose-built event and theatre building, student accommodation, swimming pool, gym, outdoor spaces and amphitheatre, bars, event pavilions, cafes, services, shops and underground parking.

“Join us and get some food,” Professor Schmidt invited media as he rushed to the counter to order one of Mr Papa’s famous Peruvian “Chanchita” sandwiches and a Pisco Sour, for which he’d been given a recipe before his announcement.

“I’m sorry, we don’t have Pisco Sour, but we could give you an Inca Kola instead,” was the polite reply.

The look on the Vice Chancellor’s face was inscrutable.

The new pop-up village is expected to service the ANU campus from mid-2017 through to early 2019, when Stage I of the revitalisation is expected to be complete.

 

 

 

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Helen Musa

Helen Musa

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