Design King William

The City of Unley, in partnership with the local community and industry partners, has committed to making King William Road, Adelaide's most loved mainstreet.

In 2018, following engineering reports that indicated that King William Road Between Park/Mitchell Street intersection and  Arthur Street had reached the end of it’s useful life.  Council recognised this as an opportunity to reimagine the precinct with Economic Development being the key driver.    Council undertook a 4 Month co-design approach to create a shared vision for the precinct with the local community and key stakeholders.  This involved three stages:

Stage 1: Develop a shared vision and common set of aspirations

Stage 2: Test key design ideas

Stage 3: Develop and test concept design.

Prior to the upgrade, King William Road was a narrow street with very narrow footpaths that did not allow sufficient space for activation, outdoor dining, footpath trading or community interaction.   he scope of works from property boundary to property boundary enabled the creation of a precinct that is flexible and able to respond to future needs and demands.  

Through the engagement our community clearly communicated that the upgraded needed to deliver:

A more beautiful Street…

• Provide consistent canopy trees along a paved street
• Provide ground level planting and space for planter boxes
• Extend vine planting northwards and infill existing gaps
• Retain existing character of individual shopfronts, verandas and variety offerings
• Incorporate quality artworks within the streetscape
• Highlight local heritage

A more accessible street…

• Introduce 2 new formal pedestrian crossings
• Increase regular pram ramp crossings – shorter crossing distance with improved visibility
• Establish new pedestrian paving with a consistent quality 
• Improve building entry thresholds where possible
• Introduce smart parking management to monitor and encourage turnover
• Provide legible and convenient signage
• Improve ease of movement along shop fronts
• Improve pedestrian, road and feature lighting
• Construct consistent road and kerb alignments

A more active street...

• Create a flexible streetscape that could change to meet future needs
• Provide wide footpaths without obstructions to promote walking
• Establish nodes for people to meet and congregate
• Support pedestrian nodes with shade trees and street furniture
• Introduce artworks to celebrate cultural themes and community connections
• Facilitate flexible outdoor dining where required
• Utilise smart technology to inform users of events, attractions and parking availability
• Incorporate new services and infrastructure to support events and festivals

Design Layers

• Public art opportunities: Create a variety of stylish settings that identify King William Road and encourage people to spend more time within the precinct
• Lighting opportunities: Create an inviting night time atmosphere that emphasises King William Road as a pedestrian focused streetscape, and support safer vehicle movements
• Smart technology: Introduce new technology and infrastructure provisions to allow King William Road to support improved, smart visitor experiences and gather usage data to build knowledge of movement patterns and information sources.

The Upgrade of King William Road was successfully completed on 2 December 2019, two months ahead of schedule and delivered against all project objectives for a more accessible, beautiful and active mainstreet and has provided a streetscape that meets current, and can truly adapt to changing, needs of the community.  The upgrade has delivered a cooler street with the introduction of over 70 deciduous street trees that provide shade in summer and light in winter, two new dedicated pedestrian crossings allow safe and easy access from East to West. Pedestrian friendly lighting has created a safer environment for people within the street to walk and linger. 

The new street design and flexible nature has provided opportunities for outdoor dining and activation along King William Road itself which was not possible prior to the upgrade.   To date, an additional 20 outdoor dining permits have been issues, 13 using the newly created flexible spaces.  This is an increased seating capacity of over 320 within the precinct. Vacancies have fallen from 22 prior to the upgrade to 7 in June 2020 bringing in a variety of new traders across all industries. 

Foot traffic and visitation has also increase throughout the precinct with additional space provided to stop and linger and now, in 2020 adhere to physical distancing requirements.  The cooler, green environment and increased activation also encourages increased visitation.