Tag Archives: Melbourne

Rod Laver Arena gets an updating in Melbourne

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Rod Laver Arena October 2017

Lendlease is currently constructing improvements to Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.

Timing has never really been my thing. So in honor of the Australian Open (that ended 4 weeks ago), and our visit to Melbourne (that’s been over for 4 months), here are some photos of the ongoing construction at Rod Laver Arena, originally designed by Cox Architecture, at Melbourne Park. Lendlease is doing the honors.

You can learn more about the planned improvements from the arena’s website below:

BETTER FACILITIES FOR VISITORS AND FANS

Beginning in February 2016, and staged over four years, the Stage 2 redevelopment will breathe new life into Rod Laver Arena delivering:
• a new three-level, eastern-facing main public entrance and new annexes on the northern and southern sides of the building
• improved amenities, including more food and beverage outlets and toilets
• accessible entrances to the seating bowl and expanded public concourse spaces, making it easier to move around the building.

BETTER FACILITIES FOR PLAYERS AND PERFORMERS

Extensive back-of-house improvements will ensure that performers and players enjoy the best possible amenities and staging facilities, including
• improved rigging capacity, enabling the venue to host bigger productions
• a bigger loading dock to manage faster turnaround of events
• refurbishment of the area underneath the arena, providing year-round services for artists, production crews and players during the Australian Open.

And now, for the pics. And remember, these are four months old.

Australian Unity’s new offices begin to rise at 271 Spring Street in Melbourne

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271 Spring Street Melbourne

Probuild’s tower crane has started construction on ISPT’s 271 Spring Street in Melbourne.

A noticeable trend in Australia is incorporating the old into the new. Saving facades, adding additions atop existing buildings, and developing around historic structures. 271 Spring Street is Melbourne is one such project.

Designed by John Wardle Architects, 271 Spring Street will be a 16-story office tower developed by ISPT. It will — literally — tower over the facades of the old Elms Hotel and the Mission Building along Spring Street. Probuild is the builder, which is why they get to have their name on the tower crane. (Side note: Getting my name on a tower crane is now a life goal.)

271 Spring Street looks like a cool building, right? Great location? Close to transportation? Want to lease some office space? Sorry. Every centimeter of the 15,600 square meters of space is spoken for by Australian Unity. They’ll move into the new digs in mid-2019.

271 Spring Street Melbourne

This on-site rendering poster shows how 271 Spring Street will loom over, and behind, two historic buildings.

 

Probuild, Golden Age Group announce topping out of Victoria One in Melbourne

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Three weeks ago, we took a look at Victoria One, the 75-story, 629-unit apartment tower being built in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. And now we get word via the Instagram photo above from Probuild that Victoria One has topped out at 452 Elizabeth street in the Central Business District.

That means hearty congratulations are in order for the Victoria One team, including Probuild, developer Golden Age Group, and design architects Elenberg Fraser.

Golden Age Group celebrated via Instagram as well:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bb3gXnzlnEU/

**UPDATE: Probuild has issued a press release on the topping out:

Probuild’s Victoria One has successfully topped out as the tallest tower in the Melbourne’s CBD.

 

Victoria One’s structure commenced in April 2015 and after 699 working days and 18,800m3 of concrete, the level 77 slab was completed on the 23rd of November 2017.

 

This milestone continues the success and achievements previously set by the team after completing and handing over 232 apartments in June 2017. A further 98 apartments are to be handed over to the client before the end of 2017, which will take the total amount of completed and settled apartments to 330. Our team has been committed to delivering a high quality build, despite the complexity of this construction project.

 

Once completed, the project will feature 643 residential apartments, the largest car stacker in the southern hemisphere, 11.5km of façade fins and 22,500m2 of glass façade with the total weight of the structure estimated to be around 54,000 tonnes.

The Best of Already-Built Melbourne: Light House

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Light House Melbourne

Light House, right, and next-door neighbor Victoria One, left, combine for Melbourne’s finest one-two punch.

You’ve seen a lot of Australian construction photos here lately. But there comes a time when things need to be shaken up. Will I stop posting construction photos from other countries? Oh, heavens no, don’t be silly. I still have 100s of them to go through. What I mean is, it’s time you see the best of what Australia has already built.

And I mean The Best. I’m going straight to the best building from the first city we visited in Australia: Melbourne. This is Light House. What makes it my favorite? It’s tall (natch) and slender and shiny, with vertical striping that creates diagonal waves along the facades, and on clear days it’s bluer than the bluest seas.

Light House is a 69-story tower at 442 Elizabeth Street in the Central Business District. (“CBD” is a little redundant; I didn’t get out much beyond Melbourne’s CBD, so 99% of what I saw of the city is in the CBD.) Designed by (no surprise here) Elenberg Fraser, its 627 apartments overlook Queen Victoria Market, making it a fabulously convenient location. Light House is a development from Hengyi — we just took a look at their Swanston Central project — and was built by Multiplex. Work wrapped up in August, less than two months before our visit, so we just missed the grand opening.

13/10 would live here

 

 

Avant another skyscraper in Melbourne! And I always get what Avant.

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Avant Melbourne

Avant reaches for sunlight in the high-rise forest of Melbourne’s CBD.

May Melbourne never stop building.

In a city that seems to have skyscrapers rising on every block, the especially-busy northwest section of Melbourne’s Central Business District is a construction lover’s dream. Let’s take a look at another project in the neighborhood.

Avant is a 55-story apartment tower at 54 A’Beckett Street (I need someone to explain the derivation of that street name; specifically, why there’s an initial, then an apostrophe.) Developed by the Singapore (talk about another bucket-list destination for me!) firm of World Class Global, Avant is yet another sparkling design by Elenberg Fraser, who keep cranking out one stunning building after another.

Avant will feature 456 apartments, with amenities included on floors 10 and 55. Probuild is the builder on this one. We’ve seen their work in Sydney and Gold Coast, too.

I don’t usually include a whole mess of renderings, but the images on Elenberg Fraser’s website of Avant are gorgeous, so here they all are: (construction photos in the 2nd gallery)

All renderings belong to www.pointilism.com.au

And now, the construction shots, which all belong to me 🙂

 

 

 

Swanston Central adds two tower cranes and 1,039 apartments to Melbourne’s skyline

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Swanston Central

Swanston Central will deliver 1,039 new apartments to Melbourne.

We’re taking a flight back to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia today for a look at another big apartment tower.

Swanston Central will rise 72 stories at 168 Victoria Street in the Central Business District. It is being developed by Hengyi, a hometown Melbourne company with headquarters just a few blocks from the Swanston Central site. (On a side note, Hengyi developed one of my favorite towers from our entire Australian visit — Light House — which I hope to feature in a post soon.)

A couple familiar names are also involved on this project. One is architecture firm Elenberg Fraser, whose work we’ve seen at Victoria One and Aurora Melbourne Central. The other is builder Multiplex, who I haven’t stopped talking about since seeing their work at Jewel Residences in Gold Coast, and also saw at London’s One Blackfriars.

Swanston Central will contain a whopping 1,039 one-, two-, and three-bedroom residences, and will include parking and retail space.

Conservatory Melbourne adds another 446 units to the Central Business District

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Conservatory Melbourne

Hickory Group and UEM Sunrise are building Conservatory Melbourne.

Conservatory Melbourne is another residential tower being developed by UEM Sunrise, the Malaysian company we first learned of at Aurora Melbourne Central. Conservatory will be a 42 story building containing 446 apartments, with retail space on the ground floor. Located at 9-23 Mackenzie Street in the Central Business District, the tower overlooks Carlton Gardens, one of the many immaculately-cared-for parks around this city.

Conservatory Melbourne is a design from Richmond, Victoria-based Cox Architecture. Hickory Group is the builder. The apartments are scheduled for an April 2018 opening.

Be sure to click on the Conservatory link, if for no other reason than to check out the video renderings.

Victoria One tower climbs into Melbourne’s CBD Skyline

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Victoria One Melbourne

Victoria One, flanked by Vision Apartments (left) and Light House (right)

There’s a cluster of skyscrapers adjacent to Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market that I’d love to have in my own back yard. In our 4-city tour of Australia, Melbourne stands out for its willingness to build creative structures, especially tall ones. One such tower is Victoria One, at 452 Elizabeth Street in the Central Business District.

Victoria One Melbourne

Victoria One rendering from Elenberg Fraser.

Developed by Golden Age Group, which has offices in Melbourne, Sydney, and Shanghai, Victoria One will be 75 stories high, with 629 apartments to both rent and own. Another design by Elenberg Fraser, an architecture firm we “met’ when profiling Aurora Melbourne Central, Victoria One is being built by Probuild, providing yet another connection to Aurora.

**As for those other tower I mentioned in the “cluster”? Vision Apartments and Light House. Vision, I hear from local scuttlebutt, gets mixed reviews. (I happen to be a fan.) But Light House stands as one of my favorite buildings from our entire Australian visit.

Scape Swanston adds a skyscraper to Melbourne’s student housing boom

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Scape Swanston Melbourne

Scape Swanston (right) is on the rise in the Central Business District of Melbourne, Victoria.

Scape Swanston Melbourne

Scape Swanston render from Denton Corker Marshall.

It struck me as I walked around Melbourne, Victoria last month how many construction projects were designated specifically as student housing. A quick look around the interwebs told me there are 345,000 college students in this city, according to AustralianUniversities.com. About a third of those students are from outside Australia. No wonder Melbourne is building so much housing for them.

Scape Swanston is one such facility. No ordinary dorm, Scape Swanston will be a 43-story skyscraper with 763 apartments. Scape Student Living is developing the tower, which is a design by Denton Corker Marshall. Built is the builder. It is expected to open in 2018.

 

A site almost missed, Melbourne’s Collins Arch will be a sight to behold

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Collins Arch Melbourne

The four tower cranes of Collins Arch. Think that’s cool? Just wait ’til you see renderings.

I wouldn’t normally post about tower cranes I saw from the back seat of a tour van (it’s a long story), but Collins Arch in Melbourne’s Central Business District isn’t your typical development. It was the four tower cranes that got my attention, but it was the fabulous renderings that made me a fan.

Collins Arch is being developed by Cbus Property. The architecture is the work of SHoP Architects and Woods Bagot. Multiplex is the builder. Completion is expected in 2019.