Small spaces

I was walking from the Cultural Centre busway station to the conference centre recently and was struck by how dreadful the land in front of the South Brisbane station is. The station recently underwent a great revamp but unfortunately they didn't touch this eyesore. It really is a disgustingly ugly entrance statement for the Cultural Precinct. This doesn't really support Brisbane's City Centre Masterplan vision of 'creative activity – spaces that blur the lines between public and private and break down the barriers between institutions, industries and city life'. It could do with a sprucing up to make it an activity space of some sort.

I have posted previously about New York city's approach to creating small places. It is a very cost effective and fast way to make fantastic public places without large capital expenditure. A big advantage is that it is reversible. That way you don't have to be stuck with an eyesore like this if the land owners don't want to spend money or want to keep the land for future uses.
Wouldn't a few potted trees and plants, benches and painted pavements make a great difference here? Any landscape designers want to show what can be done to make this a beautiful people-space with no capital expenditure?