RUNDLE Mall Management Authority chairman Theo Maras has hit back at Sunday Mail columnist Peter Goers for his "bitchy" criticism of the mall's upgrade.

Goers labelled the new mall a barren, charmless wasteland that was "about as welcome as … a Chinese paver to the head" in his column yesterday.

READ PETER GOERS' ORIGINAL COLUMN BELOW

Mr Maras said Goers' views were at odds with the positive public response to the project, and disappointing given the mall authority and Adelaide City Council had been through multiple rounds of consultation to come up with the design.

"It's not enlightened comment, it's bitchy," he said.

"We hired international and national placemakers and architects and we hired the best urban designers available to us in Australia.

"After that we went back to consultation again.

"We have paved the mall with a kind of granite that will stand the test of time - if I can use the word it is bulletproof.

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"Everything is of the highest possible specification and standard."

Mr Maras said feedback from traders and shoppers alike had been overwhelmingly positive.

"Everyone's got a right to comment, fine, but it's a minority call and the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

"Obviously we can't please everyone, but I am very, very pleased that the majority of people are voting with their feet and with their wallets.

"What we've got is a mall that's full with no vacancy and tenants lining up to come in."

Peter Goers: New-look Rundle Mall has lost its character, its shade - and will probably lose the public

IT'S barbaric, hideous, bare, ugly and ghastly. We do not deserve this. The much-anticipated Rundle Mall redevelopment is more or less finished from King William Street to Gawler Place. It could not be worse. It insults South Australia and is the most impersonal, user-unfriendly public space in Australia - possibly the world.

It's about as welcome as a brick to the head - or, more aptly, a Chinese paver to the head.

I paid an outrageous $3.50 per hour in a meter to park on Frome Rd. You can pay up to $9 and hour to park in our city, although the Adelaide City Council merrily raises parking fees yet hypocritically opposes the government doing so.

The new $30 million Mall is a grey wasteland. Scorched earth. It's a barren, charmless, characterless, environmental catastrophe. Running east/west, it gets the unrelenting sun all day. Hot. Hot. Hot. The glare from the dove-grey Chinese granite pavers is blinding. It's a huge, wide expanse of nothing. It's a huge, devastating failure of urban design in every respect and, worse, discourages people from using the Mall.

TELL US YOUR VIEWS ABOUT THE NEW RUNDLE MALL IN THE COMMENT BOX BELOW

The infamous Chinese pavers are in weird patterns of different colours supposedly suggesting the River Murray - but it just looks piecemeal, dull and confused. It looks like a mistake.

These pavers were supposed to be more durable than the red bricks but they are already stained and smaller pavers by King William St are already cracked. Will these shiny pavers be slippery when wet?

More: Daredevil tells - Why I climbed the Mall's Balls

Beautiful old, shady trees have been ripped out and replaced by scrawny saplings of Chinese elms to go with the Chinese pavers. They'll be vandalised in five minutes. Why weren't more established trees planted?

This Mall development was supposed to attract more people by clearing the clutter from the middle. The opposite is apparent. This horror space will keep people away.

Just as well because you have to dodge skateboarders and cars and trucks which love this new open space. There is no shelter from the harsh elements in this urban wasteland. It makes the Hajek Plaza look comfortable.

The much-loved pigs have been moved and stupidly spread out and there are no benches or shade near them. The benches are the world's worst. They look like dated bargain-basement rejects.

They are uncomfortable and backless. Heaven forfend that anyone could sit comfortably in the Mall. The only good thing about the backless benches is they'll make a better bed for the homeless.

There is no lighting and the looped lighting on the shops is under dispute. The famous feature drain snakes through the mall. How exciting!

MORE: New-look Rundle Mall unveiled

So, no shade, no rubbish bins, no character, no buskers, no joy - and no no-smoking signs. Has the council changed its mind and will now welcome smokers to the Mall?

Last Tuesday morning three young yobbos sat on a backless bench, smoking, drinking beer and abusing passersby. At least they rather scarily livened up this boring area.

The people I spoke to hate it. A few shopkeepers like it - and why not? The mall's so hideously unwelcoming that it would bring people inside shops that can be bothered opening before 10am.

Rundle Place is quite nice and welcome and there's a lovely new bookshop, The Book Boys in the Mall.

It was a huge relief to leave the depressing wasteland of the new Mall and sashay along the glorious undeveloped section between Gawler Place and Pulteney St. It pulsates with the vibrancy of workday city life: people, Christmas decorations, cafes, a visitors' information centre, the glorious balls, public loos, joy and lots of highly welcome sylvan shade from lovely old trees that the council hates.

MORE: Mall upgrade sparks surge in private investment

The emblematic Mall's Balls will be moved sideways because the Lord Mayor Stephen "Captain Pop-up" Yarwood and his designers apparently know better that the cherished artist, the late Bert Flugelman, who designed them for the middle of the Mall.

All this is intended to clear the middle of the Mall so we can see the foothills. Whoopee!

This development is a giant failure and Captain Popup's legacy now depends on the new, "improved" Victoria Square with its amphitheatre for 5000 people, the big pergola and a wetlands and transplanted trees. I can't wait to see all this very soon.

The new Rundle Mall will achieve exactly what it was supposed to avoid - send people to those suburban shopping centres with free parking, nice seats, vibrancy and charm.

Peter Goers can be heard weeknights on 891 ABC Adelaide

peter.goers@news.com.au