A site to behold

By Terry Brown
Herald Sun
It's a prime piece of real estate but the $700 million question is -- what should be built over the Jolimont rail yards?

real estate review

For commuters stalled in packed Flinders St trains, it hasn't been a nice place to visit.

You wouldn't want to live there -- although that, and everything about the site, is about to change.

Despite its low-brow pedigree, the site has two of real estate's greatest assets in abundance -- location and potential.

Arguably the best underdeveloped piece of Melbourne, the 3ha site is next to Federation Square, a hop from the MCG and boasts Yarra River vistas and Botanic Garden views.

Experts say as vacant land it might be worth $700 million or more. State government plans to cover the yards at a cost of $150 million to create a vacant block and a chance to unleash its potential.

But the question is how.

Woods Bagot designed the Melbourne Convention Centre and director Mark Kelly favours a mixed development on the Jolimont site, with people living, working, learning and shopping there.

He would like to see the ground and lower levels open to the public 24 hours a day and high-rise towers to subsidise overall development costs.

He would also like to see at the heart of the site a hotel --"the most sustainable hotel in the world" -- and an equally green commercial hub linked to world centres using advanced technology.

The site's public areas could also benefit.

"If an opera is being performed in London, it could be instantly beamed in and shown in real time," he says.

"If there's a soccer match? Bang! It could be seen live."

In contrast to the lightning speed of communications, Mr Kelly says the site has to be given as long as 50 years to fully develop.

He says it should be allowed to grow in the same "organic" way as the alleys and lanes that give the CBD character and life.

For Grocon chief Daniel Grollo the Jolimont railyards are a building block, the first stage of a revamp that he can see stretching as far as Richmond station.

He says the Jolimont site is large enough for several uses, including office space and residential, but because of its significance whatever is built will need to be of high quality and innovative.

While design and construction experts backed the government's plan to roof the rail lines to produce a clear site, Melbourne University architecture and design graduate students say the 14 rail lines should be incorporated into any design.

They spent the last half of 2007 studying several options for the site, including snaking bridges, gardens and solar power-generating sculptures. Their focus was sustainability.

"Just treating it as a normal development site would be an absolute disaster," says the university's head of landscape architecture Catherin Bull.

"We don't need another Docklands. We've already got a Southbank," Prof Bull says.

Other options from students include a water collection and processing plant and wind turbines.

"It would be fun and nice and interesting as well as doing a good thing for the city," says Prof Bull.

Other experts agree the development should not be just about making a profit.

Planning Institute of Australia Victorian president Jason Black says affordable housing should be the priority.

"Given the land is effectively owned by the government, this is a major opportunity to bring the city to the Yarra River," he says.

"It doesn't need to be driven by commercial enterprises."

He wants Russell and Exhibition streets extended to the Yarra and affordable housing built on the site.

"This is a terrific opportunity for the government to show some leadership in this regard," he says.

"One thing Federation Square doesn't have is that residential component."

Monash University Foundation professor of architecture Shane Murray says the site was so special it deserved more than to be just a commercially driven project.

"The development might contain a mix of both public cultural and institutional functions as well as some significant commercial development," he says.

"I believe on a few very special sites, such as Jolimont, the government should invest in development to protect public benefit."

Prof Murray says a competition, run under the auspices of the Office of the Victorian Government Architect, would be the best way to determine the site's future.

The idea of a competition isn't new, and it certainly isn't foolproof. In the 1970s the Hamer government had a contest offering a $100,000 prize for the best way to disguise the rail yards.

It attracted 2000 designs and the prize was eventually split between 48 entrants.

None of the designs were acted upon, which is a recurring theme for Jolimont.

Past proposals have ranged from a pleasure garden to the ANZ Bank's headquarters.

The need for a landmark has also marked many proposals.

In the late 1970s, comedian Barry Humphries suggested a giant fibreglass Ayers Rock, and others suggested a giant kangaroo and a beer bottle the height of the Eiffel Tower.

The Cox Group, which designed the MCG's northern stands and Beijing Aquatic Centre, sees Jolimont as Victoria's most important development.

"This development is as important to Melbourne as the Sydney Opera House is to Sydney," says director Philip Cox.

Patrick Ness, from Cox's Melbourne office, considers it "one of the strongest and most beautiful sites in Melbourne", where cultural, sporting, civic and government precincts are brought together.

"Its gaze over that landscape won't change in 150 years. I would liken it to Central Park in New York," Mr Ness says.

"Really, it needs a blend of public and private, civic and commercial."

Mr Ness says he favours a low-rise development of eight storeys or less and perhaps a museum devoted to Melbourne.

Don Bates, the chief designer of neighbouring Federation Square, says the Jolimont site has constraints. Significantly, there is no basement for parking and restrictions on overshadowing the Yarra.

"This doesn't mean that some of the development along Flinders St couldn't be mid-rise buildings," he says.

Caption: The Cox design for the site includes a museum, galleries and retail on the lower level.  

 

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