From Iconic to Anytown – the malling of the Esplanade

When the Design Doesn’t Deliver

The reports are full of strong words and noble concepts. The idea of connecting HOTA to the ocean through a “grand spine” is to be applauded. Grand boulevards are prized civic assets and Cavill Avenue deserves to be celebrated and elevated to that status. The river narrative as an organising principle is clever.

But the visuals fall flat

Cavill Mall looks like a suburban shopping strip. The Esplanade, while benefiting from new grassy knolls, is cluttered with clip-art furniture, undersized lighting, clumsy pavilions, and beige paving.

The Pavilions: Brutalist Deco

The proposed pavilions dominate the beachfront horizon. They will be the defining man-made elements against the ocean — yet they are glum, clumsy, and charmless. A kind of “Brutalist Deco” supposedly riffing on 1980’s architecture – a reference lost on the many.

Surfers Paradise deserves better. The pavilions should be flamboyant, sculptural, fun — Googie-style icons that celebrate the surf culture and life-saving tradition, not mute slabs of concrete.

Lost Opportunities

Trees identified in planning documents as providing exemplary shade are slated for removal — just to shift the road a metre.

Lighting is underscaled and dated. The illuminated concrete Parisols promise a seen it once “meh”,  poor cousin to what people experience at White Night or Vivid.

“Garden moments” resemble cold-war bus shelters.

The exotic character locals and visitors crave is absent, replaced with a generic “mall from anywhere.”

The Cultural Disconnect

The biggest failing is not aesthetic — it’s cultural. The design reflects suburban placemaking rather than the unique energy of Surfers Paradise.

Council’s own research shows people want bold, exotic, and iconic. Instead, the proposed works deliver blandness.

A Better Vision

Surfers Paradise should aim higher. The vision should be nothing less than: “To enhance the Surfers Paradise lifestyle and showcase it to the world.”

Cavil Mall should be reimagined as Cavill Boulevard – one of the world’s great boulevards, where arts, nature, river, city and sea collide.

That means design that is flamboyant, theatrical, tropical, and unmistakably “Surfers.”