Stage 1

Stage 1 will deliver the young heart of the Cultural Precinct, including:

•    Versatile Outdoor Space (VOS, or amphitheatre).

The City has marked project completion of the $37.5 million (2014 dollars) outdoor stage and concert lawn on time and on budget. Designed for artistic, cultural and civic celebrations, it is equipped for audiences of up to 1000, and can cater for up to 5000 with equipment ‘bumped in’. With striking views to the city skyline and the hinterland, the versatile stage doubles as a quality black box venue and can also accommodate seated functions for up to 250 people. The Arts Centre Gold Coast will manage the new cultural infrastructure and will announce a strong artistic led outdoor program in early 2018.

The lush concert lawn features themed planting and discovery paths. The VOS is connected to the larger landscape through a patchwork woodland designed to give shade and comfort to the turfed seating area. High canopied Jacaranda trees (Jacaranda mimosifolia) will provide shade without disrupting the stage view while large evergreen columnar Kauri Pines (Agathis robusta) frame the open landscape of the VOS and artscape. 

Image credit: John Gollings

• Art Gallery

An international-standard City Gallery will be delivered as part of Stage 1B of the Gold Coast Cultural Precinct. To follow completion in December 2017 of the Stage 1A concert lawn and stage (Versatile Outdoor Space), this next major step in the precinct’s evolution will deliver for the Gold Coast a purpose-built visual arts facility for exhibitions, education and engagement.

To be completed in late 2020, the gallery will be youthful, ambitious, adaptable and collaborative, reflecting the Gold Coast itself. A Managing Contractor will oversee design and construction.

A gallery brief, developed in conjunction with The Arts Centre Gold Coast, establishes an ambition for the facility to become a significant cultural attractor for the Gold Coast.​

A generous, highly-functional gallery will accommodate the valuable, but rarely seen, City Collection. It will showcase local artists and touring exhibitions and will be a platform for locals and visitors of all ages to engage with art and each other.

ARM Architecture’s Concept Design Summary Report can be viewed here.

William Robinson 'The Rainforest' 1990. Oil on linen. Collection of Gold Coast City Gallery.

Design development will seek to deliver a light, airy and sub-tropical building where locals and visitors of all ages will be drawn to experience and interact with art in its many forms.

An open-air entry foyer and connection to the surrounding environment will start a journey for the senses, further reinforced by the ambition to utilise one of the City Collection’s signature pieces, William Robinson’s Rainforest, as metaphor and design cue. 

Situated west of the new amphitheatre, the City Gallery will become a central artistic and cultural hub, complete with café and retail zone.

Labelled Stage 1B for its delivery phase, the new gallery also will provide a physical and visual connection between the existing Arts Centre, Council Chambers and the new lawn and outdoor stage, helping create a vibrant, energetic hub for the precinct. 

• Green bridge to Chevron Island

Connecting the Precinct with the light rail corridor to the east, this pedestrian and cycle bridge is expected to be completed by late 2019. Also part of Stage 1b, the bridge will bring the precinct within easy reach of residents and visitors in the busy tourist centre of Surfers Paradise and beyond.