BuildingoneVictoria MAGAZINE
13 Spirit of space The public realm Creating vibrant cities Australian Open’s future secure
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ISSN 1835-193X
In a little under three decades Melbourne’s Yarra River has been transformed from an industrial sewer to the centre of city life. Here Major Projects Minister Tim Pallas talks about how the how the Yarra has gone from an embarrassment to a highlight of Melbourne.
Melbourne in the early 1980s was anything but lively. After two decades of unplanned and barely regulated high rise development, the city was for most simply a place to work. People came in the morning and left in late afternoon leaving the CBD dead after dark and empty on weekends. In planning terms, central Melbourne was typical of many modern cities – a doughnut city with nothing in its centre.1 Professor Norman Day surveyed a bleak outlook in his 1978 article ‘An empty useless city centre’, writing: “Effective city planning has been almost unknown in Melbourne for at least 30 or 40 years. For the ordinary Melburnian that means our city has been progressively destroyed. It no longer contains the attraction and charm it once had.”2 Fuelled by the gold rush a century before, Melbourne had been regarded as a great Victorian era city ‘Marvellous Melbourne’ – with vibrant streets and graceful architecture.
However, with a declining industrial and economic base and being outshone by Sydney on the world stage, by the 1980s Melbourne was at a cross roads. Melbourne had to revitalise its public life and transform its economy or die. Fortunately enlightened leadership was at hand and the Cain Government set a new vision of planning and urban design policy for the city. Men such as the then Planning Minister Evan Walker, and Department of Planning Secretary David Yencken, saw a way to use good urban design to save central Melbourne. Much has been made of the revitalisation of central Melbourne since the 1980s. The ‘Melbourne miracle’, documented in the City of Melbourne’s Places for People research,3 attracted increased visitation and tourism to the city and brought new vigour to the economy. Melbourne’s active street life has received great publicity and our laneway culture is now so well regarded that even Sydney is trying to replicate it – perhaps the ultimate compliment from our greatest rival.
Less well celebrated is the transformation of the Yarra River corridor. If Melbourne was dour in the 1980s, the Yarra was positively dire. Polluted by decades of industrial use and cut off from the city by railway lines, the dirty brown river was at best an embarrassment to Melburnians and at worst a health hazard.4 The joke behind the Moomba Birdman Rally was not that the participants thought they could fly but that they were intentionally jumping into the Yarra! At the same time as Walker and Yencken were developing the blueprint for a new active central Melbourne, they realised the Yarra’s potential as an area for recreation and culture. In his book Fluid City, Professor Kim Dovey identifies three principles developed by the pair that have defined development of the riverside ever since: that the area should follow the lead of the Arts Centre and have a cultural and entertainment focus; that it should be a mixed use area with a variety of different building forms; and that pedestrian access should be the paramount consideration.5
Tim Pallas MP Minister for Major Projects
Spirit of space
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Sports precinct set to soar
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The public realm
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MELBOURNE RETURNS TO THE YARRA Australian Open’s future secure
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Creating vibrant cities
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Green light for markets
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Major Projects Awards List 2009
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Traffic snarl fixed
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The result is a place that is all about people: a wholly accessible place to relax and have fun; a place to walk or run; or one to just sit in and watch everyone else passing by. It is Melbourne’s first true mall and our most successful pedestrian environment. The Places for People research found weekday pedestrian numbers had increased by 52 per cent between 1994 and 2004 while on weekends numbers were up by 73 per cent.6 The excitement of what has happened on the Yarra struck me for the first time last year during a visit to the new Melbourne Convention Centre. Looking back up the river from the centre I saw how the river has become Melbourne’s greatest public thoroughfare and civic space.
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If you think about it, along each bank are some of our greatest public buildings, open spaces and attractions – Flinders Street Station, the Arts Centre, Federation Square, Birrarung Marr, Rod Laver Arena and the new rectangular stadium. Three decades of both public and private investment in buildings has drawn Melbourne’s cultural and public life down to the riverside, and now when Melburnians come together to celebrate – New Year’s Eve or the Commonwealth Games – they go to the Yarra. It is our de facto city square, the heart of our city. While the CBD might be the retail and business zone, Melbourne’s cultural cornerstones – art and sport – feature along the Yarra. The city’s focus has shifted south along the river, with the Olympic Park sports precinct to the east and the Southbank arts precinct to the west. The centre of Melbourne’s life is no longer the intersection of Bourke and Swanston, it is actually Princes Bridge.
Of course the Yarra has always been a centre of public life; it is just that we forgot about it for the greater part of last century. The lower Yarra was a traditional meeting point for the Wurundjeri people and when white people came to settle, the river’s fresh water was the reason for Melbourne’s existence.7 For Melbourne, finding the river again is like meeting an old friend.
The Melbourne Convention Centre is not just a conference venue – it creates a whole new tourism, hospitality and retail precinct linked to its surrounds with pedestrian and cycle links in every direction. The project has taken a redundant area used for car storage and turned it into a new business and tourism destination projected to bring nearly $200 million a year into Victoria.
With this in mind the 30-year strategy to turn Melbourne back to its river has been an extraordinary success – the Yarra has been reborn as an environment8 and remade as a public space. Melbourne is now actively engaged with the river and becomes more so every day thanks to the Brumby Government’s commitment to the public realm and investment in public infrastructure. Three current government projects highlight the river’s complete transformation.
Further upstream in the sporting precinct, the rectangular stadium provides a spectacular new attraction on the river bank. The stadium is not only destined to become an instant Melbourne icon; its unique world leading design brings the Olympic Park precinct closer to the water.
1 C ity of Melbourne/Jan Gehl, 2005, Places for People, p.96. 2 Ibid, p.4 3 Ibid, p.96
4 Dovey, K, 2005, Fluid City, UNSW Press, p.7. 5 Ibid, p.36. 6 City of Melbourne/Jan Gehl, 2005, Places for People, p.83.
However, it is the Hamer Hall redevelopment scheduled to begin later this year that best displays the river’s transformation.
When completed in the early 1980s, the Arts Centre faced onto St Kilda Road, ignoring the then undeveloped Yarra. Regardless, the centre brought people to the area and led to the creation of the Southgate building, and then a series of other developments heading downstream like dominoes. Now 30 years later, the refurbishment of Hamer Hall will turn the Arts Centre back to the Yarra with a new active river frontage opening up the building’s lower floors and removing the dark empty undercroft. The river can no longer be ignored. The Hamer Hall project bookends the Yarra’s transformation and vindicates the vision of the Cain Government three decades ago. Melbourne has returned itself to the river and in doing so will never look back.
7 Source: www.yarrariver.info/history.htm 8 Who wasn’t surprised and thrilled to see the dolphins swimming upstream as far as the Swan St bridge last year?
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SPIRIT OF There is still a tendency to think of public space as ‘off-cuts’ of a public design or thoroughfare plan. After all, like much in our easy and commodified lives, we use it, we pass through it, and we take it for granted. Here, Federation Square CEO Kate Brennen asks while industries or major events are evaluated for the economic and/or social contribution, are public spaces considered in the same vein?
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SPACE While public space for this purpose is defined as ‘all those parts of the built and natural environment, where the public has free access (streets, squares, rights of way, open spaces and parks, and public/private space where the public has access)’1, I’ve used examples of the impact and value of major public spaces while assuming that this value applies to smaller, less well-defined or obvious public space. It is appropriate to draw a link between access for citizens to public space, and the quality of democracy. The early Greek ‘polis’ or city-state emphasised communal behaviour, and as cities evolved, designed public space for religious, secular and commercial activities became increasingly important (for example, the Agora). These spaces had multiple functions; citizens interacted and discussed
issues pertaining to the city, aesthetic and pleasurable qualities were valued, commerce thrived, and informal and community activity space developed. Indeed the privileges of ‘citizenship’ were reflected in the public space whereas women, foreigners and slaves were not deemed to be citizens, their access to certain public spaces (the most ‘democratic’) was prohibited!2 As important conceptually to public space, is the age-old African world view of Ubuntu. Ubuntu weaves together the humanity of each individual and is at the heart of human security in relation to the existence of, compassion and respect for, and sharing and living with others. One’s identity as an individual and his/ her existence and meaningfulness depends on the existence and survival of other individuals, and on human
armona, de Magalhaes, Hammond 1980, Public Space, C the Management Dimension, Routledge, London. 2 Ibid. 3 Sen, A, Ogata, S et al, 1999, Positive Forces for Change or Fuel for Violence, United Nations Human Security and Public Participation, p.10. 4 Camona et al, op. cit. 5 Whyte, William H 1980, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, Conservation Foundation.
interdependence. Sharing with and caring for each other gives a social and traditional base to individuals and communities to live together and ensure that the survival, livelihood and dignity of individuals and communities are respected.3 Whether the discourse around public space has an environmental/livability or quality of life/wellbeing approach at its core, it is clear that there is a growing body of evidence that getting public space right contributes directly to social capital, that is, ‘As a stage to encourage social cohesion and interaction and build social capital, as a venue for economic exchange and as an element in determining economic competitiveness and investment decisions; as an environmental resource and direct influence on energy use and as an important
contributor to the livability of urban places and an influence on the health and wellbeing of local populations.’4 But there is every risk that our public space gets reworked or developed with only the most superficial understanding of what ‘great public places’ are about. Major cities have become enamoured with branded designers, some of whom have created new spaces which are unfit for human activity and new buildings which stand alone and are emerging as untended, unusable and isolated. A narrow emphasis on design rather than a rounded appreciation of humanity and democracy has the potential to create dysfunctional future cities and communities.
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Kate Brennan, CEO, Federation Square
William Whyte wrote that the social life in public spaces contributes to the quality of life of individuals and society, and that there is a moral responsibility to create physical spaces that encourage civic engagement and community interaction. His observation of pedestrian behaviour as early as ‘The Street Life’ project led him to a bottom up approach to planning public space. He believed that one should observe the way people moved through, used and re-used a space and this should be the basis of planning.5 Having emerged from William Whyte’s work, the New York based Project for Public Spaces has evaluated thousands of public spaces around the world and found that successful ones are “much more about activities, uses, comfort and image, and sociability than they are about some design statement... We’re
...discovering management is the key to making these public spaces work. Design needs to take a back seat to management so that the natural human activity that evolves can really guide the management and the design of these facilities.”6 In a similar vein, Nikos Salingaros in his Principles of Urban Structure argues that urban networks are the foundation for healthy urban fabric, with living cities depending on ‘an enormous number of different paths and connections’.7 He also seeks to re-humanise our cities and establishes the priority of the pedestrian realm as the foundation of a human-based conception of urbanism. Myriad organisations, both private and public, explore and provide tools and case studies for obtaining good outcomes for communities and public space. The UK Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (www.cabe.org.uk) is just one which provides vast case study and guideline resource material focusing on exemplars for everything from great design to civilised streets.
Opened at the end of 2002, Federation Square is Melbourne’s civic and community heart. Over 55 million people (more than 8 million a year) have visited since opening and currently, more than 2000 activities occur in the public spaces each year, the majority of which are free. On any given day there is ‘something for everyone’, from permanent exhibitions to screen content, places to meet, eat and drink and activities which touch the mind and soul. The city’s most contemporary architectural statement has become a thriving meeting place for locals and visitors alike, a focal point for community and cultural activity, its most significant public place, and one of Australia’s most awarded developments. Principles embodied in its Civic and Cultural Charter have been part of the basis of this success which has seen it achieve more than 40 national and international awards, including for its contribution to community harmony. Staying in touch with the sentiment of the community is given particular attention, whether by being available to host a protest, broadcasting the National Apology to the Stolen Generation, marking the death of a respected community member, or celebrating a sporting success.
A formal economic impact study conducted in 2007 to identify interstate and international visitor expenditures in Victoria revealed that Federation Square contributes $51.3 million (in 2005-06 prices) annually. This translates into an annual $88 million in Victorian gross state product at market prices, and 756 full time equivalent employment positions across the state. These results confirm the initial $450 million investment by the Victorian Government and the City of Melbourne with support from the Federal Government as justified, creating an ongoing and positive contribution to Victoria.8 Increasingly a benchmark for other developments, Federation Square looks to large and small examples elsewhere as it continues its evolutionary journey, aspiring to be an engaging and relevant public place into the future. Parallels with some of the bold historic and contemporary sites elsewhere in the world are obvious. Trafalgar Square, with which we have formed an information sharing partnership, ranks as the fourth most popular tourist attraction on earth with more than 15 million annual visitors. In 2003 the redevelopment of the north side of
the square was completed. The work, carried out in the face of protests from both road users and pedestrians concerned that the diversion of traffic would lead to greater congestion elsewhere in London, involved permanently closing the main eastbound road, diverting it around the rest of the square and demolishing part of the wall and building a wide set of stairs. It includes lifts for disability access, public toilets, and a small café. Plans for a large staircase had long been discussed, even in original plans for the square. The new stairs lead to a large terrace or piazza in front of the National Gallery, in what was previously a road. Like Federation Square, Trafalgar Square is increasingly defined by its public engagement and its contribution to humanity. In June 2002, 12,000 people gathered in the square to watch the England national football team’s World Cup quarter-final against Brazil on giant video screens erected specifically for the occasion. The square has also become the end location for victory parades, used by the England national rugby union team to celebrate its victory in the 2003 Rugby World Cup, and then for the England national cricket team’s victory against
Kent, Fred, www.pps.org. Salingaras, N 2005, Principles of Urban Structure, Tech Press, Holland. 8 The National Institute of Economic and Industry Research, Federation Square: Economic Impact Assessment July 2007. 6 7
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Australia in The Ashes. In 2005 it was a gathering place to hear the announcement that London had won the bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. The square was also the location of the successful ‘World’s Largest Coconut Orchestra’ world record attempt on 23 April 2007. And the day after Michael Jackson’s death, crowds gathered at Trafalgar Square for a mass moonwalk in his memory. Millennium Park is an award winning centre for art, music, architecture and landscape design in downtown Chicago. What is now Millennium Park was first conceived in 1998 with the mission of creating new parkland within the larger Grant Park, to transform the unsightly railroad tracks and parking lots that had long dotted the lakefront. Over time, with Mayor Richard M. Daley’s vision and Frank Gehry’s involvement, the project evolved into the most ambitious public undertaking in Chicago’s history. The 24.5-acre park is a result of a unique partnership between the City of Chicago and the
philanthropic community, featuring the work of world-renowned architects, planners, artists and designers, transforming an industrial wasteland into a new world class urban park. Among Millennium Park’s prominent features are the Frank Gehrydesigned Jay Pritzker Pavilion, the most sophisticated outdoor concert venue of its kind in the United States; the interactive Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa; the contemporary Lurie Garden designed by the team of Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd, Piet Oudolf and Robert Israel; and Anish Kapoor’s hugely popular Cloud Gate. It is described as an extraordinary 21st century park, the result of a unique combination of private money (much of the project’s cost expansions and over-runs were funded by private parties) and city power and influence, which has created a new iconic image of Chicago. From criticisms about expenditure to the operating procedures and opening hours
leading more to a ‘private’ rather than ‘public’ persona, Millennium Park has also been the subject of wide ranging antipathy. It appears that this is more to do with management than design and an expectation of access and engagement, occasionally denied, that defines whether this magnificent space works for people. Aside from Trafalgar Square’s amazing history and Millennium Park’s exceptional resources, it seems that indictors of success are increasingly those used here in our own backyard at Federation Square and in other successful public realm work in our state. What I think this means is that with a deep understanding of the essence of the public space and our enviable track record as a city for people, we can lead the world with imagination and delivery. The new public spaces await us.
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ALB SPO PRE SET 10
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BERT PARK ORTING ECINCT T TO SOAR The transformation of Albert Park into an elite and grassroots sports precinct has begun, with Sports Minister James Merlino breaking ground on the State Sports Facilities project in November 2009.
Mr Merlino said the $50 million Brumby Government project would help cement Melbourne’s status as the world’s sporting capital with the development of a new State Athletics Centre, while keeping grassroots sport alive through the longest drought in our history.
“Victorians are passionate about their sport and this project will not only add another piece of infrastructure to our world class sporting precincts, but provide opportunities at the grassroots to ensure our
communities are strong, happy, healthy and active,” Mr Merlino said. “Construction of the important community aspect to this redevelopment – including two new all-purpose synthetic pitches and a pavilion – is the first step in the rejuvenation of Albert Park.
“The pitches will provide safe, water-free surfaces that are capable of being used day in, day out right throughout the year by sporting organisations and families.” Major Projects Minister Tim Pallas said nearby Lakeside Oval would be redeveloped to house the new State Athletics Centre and provide high quality training facilities for elite athletes to train and compete.
“The heritage grandstand, constructed in 1926, will be restored to become the new home of the Victorian Institute of Sport, while the precinct will provide improved facilities for the athletics community, school groups and community organisations to better meet their needs.” Work on the State Athletics Centre is scheduled to begin in the coming months and will include a synthetic eight-lane running track with 10lane front straight. The project also includes a six-lane warm up track, long jump pits, pole vaulting areas, javelin runways and an electronic scoreboard. For further information about the project, please visit www.mpv.vic.gov.au
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THE PUBLIC REALM Hamish Lyon, Director, NH Architecture
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Melbourne Convention Centre co-architect Hamish Lyon discusses the history and philosophy behind Melbourne’s newest public precinct, South Wharf. Melbourne
The Hoddle grid
The Yarra River
Melbourne is a city internationally regarded as a centre for design excellence. This reputation is evident in the city’s architecture, its fashion and urban culture, and through its proud tradition of being the sporting capital of the world. Landmark projects such as Federation Square, the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art and the Melbourne Recital Hall reflect Melbourne’s commitment to public architecture and the civic life of the city, and are bound together by Melbourne’s public streets, laneways and gardens. The quality of Melbourne’s urban spaces owes a great debt to its founding fathers and their vision for a city of wide streets and public gardens. The challenge for contemporary designers is to respect the heritage of the urban environment while bringing a new and dynamic interest to further enrich ’modern’ Melbourne.
Melbourne was established under the guiding principles of the colony’s government surveyor, Robert Hoddle. Hoddle’s colonial grid was set out with the certainty of ‘enlightenment’ rigour and proposed a city based on a regular order of major and minor streets. Unlike European cities of the time, the initial city plan avoided any indication of a major public space or square, to avoid public gatherings with the potential to create civil unrest (the English colonial powers were still living in the aftermath of the French revolution). From its inception, the city grew within the limits of Hoddle’s plan and continued unabated during the great days of the 1850s gold rush and the length and breadth of 20th century modernism. It was not until the 1990s that the City of Melbourne’s Urban Design Strategy re-invested in the strength of the city’s historical urban fabric to reinvigorate the old street and laneway system, which has now become a major national and international tourist attraction.
Melbourne’s relationship with the Yarra River has followed a similar historical path. The river was originally a thriving commercial point of trade and connection with the mother country and the exotic ports of the East Indies. The trade ships were able to travel upstream as far as Queens Bridge with a ready supply of fresh water, but a succession of new bridges built during the early 20th century increasingly cut off the traditional port areas. With this decline of shipping activity along the central business districtstretch of the river, Melburnians turned their attention away from the waterway. Because the river increasingly disappeared from public consciousness, its health and amenity deteriorated in turn. It wasn’t until the 1980s that the deplorable state of the river, together with the fact that potentially one of the city’s best assets was not being used to its greatest advantage, became topical issues of public debate. The scope for interaction with the Yarra and opportunities for
Docklands development embracing the river and creating vibrant public realm were finally being realised for the first time in the modern life of the city. Southgate and its associated arts and leisure precinct led the way, offering for the first time the southern banks of the river - right in the city’s heart - for the public’s enjoyment. The re-emergence of the southern banks of the Yarra continued through the 1990s to the west with the Crown Entertainment Complex and the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, and more recently with the Melbourne Convention Centre Development and South Wharf Retail. Developments, completed in 2002, on the northern bank include Federation Square and Birrarung Marr.
Melbourne’s most recent urban expansion is the Docklands precinct. The rapid and extensive development of the precinct has created a hive of activity at the western edges of Melbourne’s central business district. At the same time, however, it has highlighted missing circulation links back to the eastern parts. Heading downstream from Federation Square, the public domain along the riverfront came to an abrupt halt at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre, and pedestrian links between the northern and southern banks were sporadic.
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South Wharf
Melbourne Convention Centre and South Wharf
The newly created South Wharf precinct provides the critical missing link in the development of the Yarra River corridor. Strategically located at a major bend in the Yarra, the precinct completes the vision for the rejuvenation of the river corridor established by the Southbank development 20 years earlier. It offers a fulcrum into the newly expanding Docklands precinct to the north and therefore acts as the final piece in the jigsaw binding these two precincts together.
Development of the Melbourne Convention Centre and the South Wharf precinct has generated new opportunities for this area to be recognised as a prime maritime precinct. It includes Dukes Dock, where the Polly Woodside resides. As part of redeveloping the area, a number of heritage items such as the old pump house were reinstated.
Left: Original architect’s sketches of the Melbourne Convention Centre and South Wharf area.
The urban design objective for the new South Wharf precinct was based on the concept of developing an integrated mixed-use activity centre. The precinct completes the rhythm of activities along the southern edge of the Yarra, continuing the pattern of river edge public spaces which vary from open and relatively quiet to active and intense. For example, Southgate is intensively active, moving to the Esso forecourt which is passive, then Riverside Quay (active), Queensbridge Square (passive), Crown Casino (active), and the Exhibition Centre (passive).
The new Melbourne Convention Centre, designed by joint venture architects Woods Bagot and NH Architecture is at the heart of the South Wharf precinct. Its triangular form is a direct response to its urban context, emanating from the intersection of three main axes – the existing river axis, architecturally articulated by the Exhibition Centre colonnade, a second axis running across the new footbridge to the developing Docklands to the north, and a third axis extending along the bend of the river to Webb Bridge, where the city will grow in the future. It is a building with no ’back’ and ’front’, offering multiple points of permeable site access. It is easily approached from the city, the Docklands, the existing Exhibition Centre, and the new porte-cochère.
While having its own distinct identity, the new convention centre is fully integrated with the adjoining Melbourne Exhibition Centre, becoming the largest exhibition and convention facility in the southern hemisphere. The convention centre is just one part of a public private partnership between the Victorian Government and the Plenary Group. The new South Wharf precinct may inspire the usual criticisms against privately manufactured public infrastructure projects, but as architects, our obligation is to transcend the politics and endeavour to create long term public benefits. I see the new convention centre as a building that is distinctive and worthy of its prime riverfront location in the South Wharf precinct, not just as a venue for large conventions. I hope this will also be a sign of its developing place in the collective consciousness of Melburnians and all Victorians.
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AUSTRALIA FUTURE SE Melbourne and Olympic Parks will remain the home of the Australian Open for generations to come with a multi-million dollar transformation of this world class sporting precinct.
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AN OPEN’S ECURE During this year’s Australian Open, Premier John Brumby said a major facelift to Margaret Court Arena – including the installation of a new retractable roof and an additional 1500 seats – and a new Eastern Plaza that will house 21 new courts, were the major highlights of the $363 million first stage of the redevelopment.
“Victorians are passionate about their sport and the Australian Open is one of the major highlights on Melbourne’s world class international sporting calendar,” Mr Brumby said. The redevelopment will place a strong emphasis on the comfort of patrons, with more open space and shade, increased seating capacity, better connections to public transport and the city, and easier movement into and within the Melbourne and Olympic Parks precinct.
The first stage of the redevelopment includes: - a major upgrade to fully enclose Margaret Court Arena, including the installation of a retractable roof and additional seating to increase crowd capacity to 7,500 - a new Eastern Plaza, incorporating eight new indoor courts and 13 outdoor courts for elite training and general public use as well as change room facilities and a gymnasium
- refurbishments to Rod Laver Arena and Hisense Arena - additional parking and a footbridge linking Melbourne Park to the new Melbourne rectangular stadium.
Works are due to commence shortly onsite with stage one of the project expected to be complete in time for the 2015 Australian Open.
Major Projects Victoria will work with Sport and Recreation Victoria, the Melbourne and Olympic Parks Trust and Tennis Australia to manage the redevelopment.
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New Championship Courts
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New shaded Town Square
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The Oval & Landscape Works
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Upgrades to Hisense Arena
06 Existing Function Centre converted to Broadcast & Media Facility
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New Function Centre
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New Player Services & Facilities Building
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New Eastern Plaza Tennis Facilities
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New Eastern Plaza and Car Parking
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CREATING VIBRANT C Tim Orton, Chair of the Geelong Performing Arts Centre
G CITIES Tim Orton, Chair of the Geelong Performing Arts Centre and Chairman of the Arts Precinct Leadership Group talks about the importance of culture and art in creating a vibrant city, and driving the success of Geelong’s revamped cultural precinct.
At the heart of all successful vibrant cities is a strong visual and physical cultural presence that creates lasting social regeneration through engagement and participation. This in turn leads to demonstrable and significant economic and community benefits. In recent years there has been a growing interest, both in Australia and overseas, in leading brand change and enhancing the quality of life for local residents through cultural development, and specifically through the development or enhancement of cultural precincts. Examples of these range from the further evolution of Brisbane’s Southbank and the establishment of Federation Square in Melbourne, to the planning for a 40-hectare cultural and commercial precinct in West Kowloon, Hong Kong. Worldwide there is a recognition that the energy and focus provided by a cultural precinct can fuel not only cultural but also social, economic and tourism benefits.1
Along with this focus on cultural development and evolution has come an increasing recognition that while the buildings – their design and architecture – are a critical part of a precinct’s success, other factors are of equal or greater importance. Geelong’s Arts Precinct is a working example of how a successful precinct looks beyond its ‘infrastructure’ to strive for success. Admittedly the precinct has great ‘bones’ with its collection of institutions: the Old Courthouse Building – home of Courthouse Arts and internationally acclaimed Back to Back Theatre; the Geelong Performing Arts Centre (GPAC); the Geelong Gallery; the Geelong Central Library; and the Geelong Heritage Centre. Within these facilities artists have access to a range of spaces to make their work, and the public enjoys high quality and diverse programs across the performing arts, literature and the visual arts.
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Cultural precinct for Geelong: Geelong A Performing Arts Centre: Creative Thinking, Positive Solutions September 2009
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Programs offered are available for all ages and there is the capacity to extend activity through outreach programs and special collaborative projects. The precinct is accessible to public transport and is close to the waterfront. It also has attractive public outdoor spaces and a safe, family friendly environment which adds to its attractiveness and potential as a new focus for the community. The precinct currently attracts around 500,000 visitors a year, but as one of the state’s fastest growing regions – Geelong’s population is expected to double to close to half a million people by 2050 – attendances are predicted to increase dramatically.
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However there are two other important factors which will drive the future success of the precinct. First is an understanding across the precinct that collaborative planning and design can identify unnecessary duplication and opportunities for cooperative activities and services. Clearly the individual institutions have their particular artistic focus and facility requirements, but potential synergies such as complementary catering and retail services and opportunities for ecologically sustainable development are being explored.
Second is the formation in August 2007 of the Arts Precinct Leadership Group (APLG), a voluntary group comprising the Chairs of each of the arts facilities, a representative from the City of Greater Geelong and representatives with commercial and marketing expertise. The APLG’s vision is ‘To create a cultural Precinct for the greater Geelong region that is renowned as a model of artistry, energy, distinction, innovation and sustainability. The group is looking to maximise opportunities to make a substantial impact on the cultural, economic and social life of the region.’2
The Victorian Government’s Geelong Future Cities project proposes an expanded and integrated cultural offering for the people of Greater Geelong. Stage one involves the development of separate business cases for the Geelong Library/Heritage Centre and the Geelong Performing Arts Centre, and the refurbishment of the Old Courthouse Building. Other facilities within the cultural precinct include the Geelong Gallery and Johnstone Park.
Inherent in this vision are four key goals: 1. T o increase audiences by presenting innovative, high quality and diverse programming in spaces capable of meeting industry demands for best practice performance. 2. T o create a dynamic arts hub by developing new collaborative programming initiatives and animating the precinct. These plans offer the organisations involved a rare opportunity to imagine a future with greater collaboration across art forms and activities, improved utilisation of the redeveloped facilities and greater community access.
3. T o enhance the precinct’s profile with improved communication, collaborative marketing and branding strategies. 4. T o provide strong and coherent leadership – advocacy, governance and communication.
The project is aiming for an arts precinct for the Greater Geelong region that is unique in Australia; renowned as a model to which other regional and international centres should aspire. This planned investment in cultural infrastructure is arguably the most important strategic intervention for the region. Indeed, Geelong’s future depends on it.
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eelong Cultural Precinct Leadership G Strategic Plan 2008.
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GREEN LIGH FOR MARKE 24 Building One Victoria Magazine
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Work is under way on the building of a new Melbourne Wholesale Fruit, Vegetable and Flower Market at Epping, with the new facility expected to inject an estimated $870 million into the Victorian economy during construction. Just prior to Christmas Acting Premier Rob Hulls inspected works with Major Projects Minister Tim Pallas and said the exciting project would deliver improved operational efficiency and a safer work environment for Victoria’s market community. “We’re establishing a modern and efficient market in Epping for the next 50 years and beyond, so it’s great to see work under way on this important project, creating 600 jobs in the process,” Mr Hulls said.
“The new facility, to be built by Bovis Lend Lease, would be a great boost for the market community and all those who benefit from a bigger, better Melbourne wholesale market. “On a busy day up to 4000 wholesalers, growers and retailers use the current market, supplying thousands of restaurants, supermarkets and local grocers throughout Melbourne and regional Victoria. This is the new link in Victoria’s fresh food chain,” he said. “When complete, this project will ensure the ongoing viability of the wholesale markets, which is crucial to sustaining Victoria’s $11.8 billion agricultural sector.”
Mr Pallas said the new market would offer vastly superior facilities and logistical arrangements for wholesalers, growers and retailers.
“This consultation process has worked particularly well and we would like to thank the market community for this work.”
“This project will incorporate a range of sustainable energy and water efficient features, while creating an efficient, competitive and accessible market with a greatly improved occupational health and safety environment for market users,” Mr Pallas said.
Chairman of the Market Overview Consultative Committee Neil Lowe said the start of works on site was a great result for the market community.
“The government has been working closely with the market community on the design of the building, which has been refined from a T-shape to a more efficient anchor set-up following feedback from the users.
“The government has established a constructive dialogue with the market community and as a result, improvements have been made to the design. This is a very positive outcome,” Mr Lowe said.
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2009 was an extremely successful year for Major Projects Victoria with a host of awards received for engineering, architecture and construction. These great buildings are the result of clients, project managers, architects, builders and engineers working together to deliver the best possible result for the project and the state.
The Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC) and MTC Theatre project received the following honours:
Architecture - o ne of 13 buildings to be short-listed for the international Brit Insurance Designs of the Year architecture award. The architecture award is among the Design Museum’s annual explorations of the most innovative, interesting and forward-looking new work in design of all kinds, from around the world - o ne of 272 building projects that have made it onto this year’s shortlist for the world’s biggest architecture contest – the World Architecture Festival (WAF) Awards
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- t he Emil Sodersten Award for Interior Architecture at the Australian Institute of Architects’ 2009 National Architecture Awards - f our of the highest honours at this year’s Victorian Architecture Awards including the 2009 Victorian Architecture Medal, the William Wardell Award for public architecture, the Marion Mahony Award for interior architecture and the Joseph Reed Award for urban design - t wo awards at the 2009 Dulux Colour Awards, winning the Commercial Interior and the Grand Prix categories.
AWARDS LIST 2009
Construction
Engineering
Property development
- n amed the best building in Australia at the 2009 Master Builders’ National Excellence in Building and Construction Awards, the MRC and MTC Theatre project received two of the highest honours, the National Commercial/Industrial Construction Award (over $100 million) and the National Commercial Master Builder of the Year for the project builder, Bovis Lend Lease
- a coustic engineer, Arup received a Gold Award of Merit at the 2009 Association of Consulting Engineers Awards for Excellence
- t op honours for a public building at the prestigious Property Council of Australia/Rider Levett Bucknall Innovation & Excellence Gala Awards, winning the Moore Stephens Award for Public Buildings from a shortlist of 22 public buildings.
- a n Award for Excellence for Infrastructure (projects over $20 million) at the 2009 Victorian Engineering Excellence Awards.
- b uilder Bovis Lend Lease was awarded Master Builder of the Year at the Master Builders Association of Victoria’s 2009 Excellence in Construction Awards. The project also won the Excellence in Construction award for buildings over $80 million.
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The Melbourne Convention Centre Development received the following honours:
Architecture
ESD
Property development
Partnerships
- o ne of 272 building projects that made it onto the 2009 shortlist for the world’s biggest architecture contest - the World Architecture Festival (WAF) Awards.
- a n Investa Environmental Development Award and the prestigious President’s Award at the Australian Property Institute Excellence in Property Awards (Victoria)
- t op honours at the 2009 Australian Property Institute Victorian Division’s Excellence in Property Awards, winning the Investa Environmental Development Award and the President’s Award.
- a State Government Victorian Industry Participation Policy award for using local suppliers
- a 2009 Green Supplier Gold Award which recognises environmental excellence and innovation within the international meetings industry - a 6-star green star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia for innovative environmental design - t he prestigious Banksia Foundation Built Environment Award 2009 which recognises outstanding environmental features.
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- a Government Partnerships Excellence award from Infrastructure Partnerships Australia.
The Hepburn Springs Bathhouse refurbishment was awarded:
Architecture
Construction
- t he 2009 Australian Institute of Architects’ (Victorian chapter) Public Architecture Award (Alterations and Additions category) as well as a Regional award
- t he 2009 Master Builders Excellence in Construction Awards Regional Builder of the Year was awarded to A.W Nicholson for their work on the bathhouse. The state award followed a win at the regional awards in the Best Commercial/Industrial Project (over $3 million).
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TRAFFIC SNARL FIXED
Building One Victoria Magazine
A new era for travel in Melbourne’s east has begun with the completion of the $140 million Springvale Road rail and road separation project in January.
Premier John Brumby said the project was a New Year’s treat for road and rail users with the train station opening ahead of the original schedule.
The project, which eliminated the Springvale Road level crossing and built a new premium underground station, has created a safer and more efficient environment for drivers and rail passengers.
“More than 50,000 drivers each day will now find it far easier to get through what was regularly voted by RACV members as Melbourne’s worst traffic snarl.
“More than 200 trains pass through the level crossing each day, so its removal will significantly improve safety for local road users, train passengers and pedestrians.
The project, completed by the Springvale Road Rail Alliance, was jointly funded by the Victorian and Federal Governments.
Above: The new underground Nunawading Station under construction.
“Eliminating this level crossing means people living and working in Melbourne’s east can spend less time commuting and more time with family and friends.”
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If you would like to receive this publication in an accessible format, please telephone Major Projects Victoria (MPV) on (03) 9655 8622. This document is also available in PDF format on the MPV website at www.mpv.vic.gov.au. For information on projects delivered by MPV, visit www.mpv.vic.gov.au. For information on specific projects the Victorian Government is delivering, visit www.vic.gov.au. Published and authorised by Major Projects Victoria, Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development, Level 8, 121 Exhibition Street, Melbourne, Victoria. March 2010. Copyright State of Victoria. Printed by Print Dynamics Pty Ltd 25 Lionel Rd, Mt Waverley VIC 3149 Designed by Design and Production Unit, Public Affairs, Department of Transport Contributors: J Gronow, B O’Connor, S Goodey, L McPhee, K Brennan, H Lyon, T Orton, T Pallas Photography: P Glenane, NH Architecture, Sport and Recreation Victoria, Bovis Lend Lease, VicRoads
Subscribe To subscribe to Building One Victoria, please provide your name and address to Major Projects Victoria at GPO Box 4509, Melbourne, Vic., 3001 or by submitting your details through the MPV website, www.mpv.vic.gov.au.
Major Projects Victoria’s (MPV) mission is to deliver projects that achieve exceptional economic, social and environmental outcomes for the Victorian community. MPV is a division of the Department of Innovation, Industry and Regional Development and reports to the Minister for Major Projects, Tim Pallas MP.