Architecture of Melbourne

Victorian era Rialto group of buildings contrasted with the 20th Century late modernist Rialto.

The architecture of Melbourne, the capital of the state of Victoria and second most populous city in Australia, is characterised by a wide variety of styles in various structures dating from the early years of European settlement to the present day. The city is particularly noted for its mix of Victorian architecture and contemporary buildings, with 74 skyscrapers (buildings 150 metres or taller) in the city centre, the most of any city in the Southern Hemisphere.

In the wake of the 1850s Victoria gold rush, Melbourne entered a lengthy boom period, earning the moniker Marvellous Melbourne to represent its wealth and grandeur. By the 1880s, it had become one of the largest and wealthiest cities in the British Empire, second only to London. The wealth generated during this period is reflected in much of the city's grand, richly ornamented Victorian architecture. This is embodied by the Royal Exhibition Building, Australia's only UNESCO World Heritage registered building. During the 1880s Land Boom the height of some of Melbourne's buildings including the 12-storey APA Building (1889) rivalled other early skyscrapers in the American cities of Chicago and New York City. Numerous villas and mansions sprung up in the suburbs, served by an expanding railway system, and extensive tramway network. The interwar period saw many commercial additions to the city streets in a variety of styles, and the further spread of suburban housing.

The post World War 2 period ushered in a new boom, with the city hosting the 1956 Summer Olympics, and the lifting of height limits at the same time led a boom in high rise office building, beginning with ICI House. This boom saw the loss of some of Melbourne's most remarkable Victorian buildings, notably the Federal Coffee Palace, APA Building and also many others. Concern at the losses led to the establishment of the Victorian Heritage Register in 1974, and the heritage list now includes such places as the Royal Exhibition Building, the General Post Office, the State Library of Victoria and Flinders Street railway station.

Since the 2000s, the central city and Southbank area has seen a new boom in high rise construction, with some blocks of the city developed to very high densities, and the tallest buildings in Australia, including the 297m (92 floors) Eureka Tower, which was the tallest residential tower in the world when completed in 2006.

Distinctively Melbourne styles include the many bluestone (basalt) constructions of the colonial era, extensive use of polychrome brickwork and a regional variation of the boom-style Victorian Italianate filigree (decorative cast iron) terrace houses featuring excessively high parapets from the High Victorian period and a residential style pioneered by Robin Boyd and Roy Grounds known as the post-war Melbourne regional style. These attributes found in the architecture of Melbourne are rare elsewhere.

History

Main article: History of Melbourne

Further information: Victorian gold rush

Melbourne is home to the oldest building in Australia, Cooks' Cottage (1755), however the former home of British explorer James Cook was transplanted in 1934 from the English village of Great Ayton, North Yorkshire by the Australian philanthropist Sir Russell Grimwade.

1835–1850: Earliest buildings

Illustration of Collins Street in 1839 overlooked by Wurundjeri from the hill on the approximate site of the Old Treasury.

The original inhabitants, the Wurundjeri were known to have created temporary structures called Mia-mia out of bark, saplings and timber and were observed by Protector of Aborigines William Thomas to be comfortably housed.

Melbourne was first settled by Europeans in 1835, when rival entrepreneurs from Tasmania, John Batman and John Pascoe Fawkner sent expeditions looking for sheep pasture. Batman famously stated that “This is the place for a village”, generally believed to refer to the point on the Yarra River where freshwater was found (near today's Queensbridge). However Batman's Treaty was declared void by the government of the time so what was later known as the Port Phillip District was established as a squatter's encampment. The land to the north of the Yarra was a gentle valley between hills to the east and west, and riding ground to the north. Nevertheless in 1837, government surveyor Robert Hoddle laid out a grid of streets, approximately 30 metres wide (considerably wider than Sydney streets) between the two hills and aligned with the river.

Early buildings were modest and typical of a frontier town, there were few landmarks of note. From early accounts and sketches there were few if any buildings taller than two storeys, many were of timber construction and those of brick and stone were almost all built were in the prominent colonial architectural style of the time, the Georgian revival, with mostly detached or semi-detached buildings with gable or hip rooves and simple undecorated walls. Melbourne was early to expand and spread from the Hoddle grid along the Yarra and Maribyrnong River and Port Phillip Bay. Early buildings that survived later development can be found in suburbs such as East Melbourne, Fitzroy, Hawthorn, Williamstown, St Kilda and Heidelberg among others.

St James Old Cathedral (1839-1847) (relocated 1914), the most prominent of the few remaining buildings from the colonial era.

The best known surviving building from this period is the St James Old Cathedral (1839-1847), which originally stood at the corner of William and Little Collins streets in what was then the centre of town but was later relocated.

Another of Melbourne's oldest buildings La Trobe's Cottage (1839) was a prefabricated home constructed in England and transported to Melbourne, like St James it has been relocated, though several times prior to its current site in Kings Domain.

English Gothic and Jacobean Revival was also evident in some early buildings. Part of St Francis Church on the corner of Lonsdale and Elizabeth streets dates to 1842, the simple construction is Melbourne's oldest Gothic revival building, though its original form was later significantly augmented and altered. The Hawthorns, Hawthorn (1845), St Peter's Church, Eastern Hill (1846), Invergowie in Hawthorn (1846), Wattle House in St Kilda (1846), as well as Banyule (1846) and St John's Anglican Church (1849) in Heidelberg, Overnewton in Keilor (1849-1859) and Whitbyfield in Brunswick (c1850) are other examples of early tudor revival.

Duke of Wellington Hotel, one of the city's oldest surviving commercial buildings

Devonshire Arms Hotel in Fitzroy (1843) a modest georgian style building is the oldest extant hotel in the city. Job Warehouse (54-62 Bourke Street) (1848-1849), a double storey building in the georgian style is the oldest surviving row and typical of the era, though slightly modified. Oddfellows Hotel (1848-1850) is another early example. The John Smith Residence (1848-1852) is the oldest surviving residence built in the Hoddle grid, though the georgian style home later had an additional storey added. A two-storey colonial regency style shop on the corner of King and Latrobe Street (1850) is recognised as the oldest known building in the Hoddle grid with an unmodified original appearance. The Duke of Wellington Hotel on Flinders Street (1850), another modest two-storey georgian style building, is also believed to date to this era and is cited as the oldest public bar in the Hoddle grid. Another building known as the Black Eagle Hotel was built in 1850 as two storey georgian terraces in Little Lonsdale street may have operated as a hotel from the outset.

Early suburban architecture exhibited a variety of different styles. For example Charterisville in Ivanhoe (1840) is a sandstone residence with a strong association with the artists colony at Heidelberg; Wentworth House in Pascoe Vale (1842-1852) is one of Melbourne's earliest bluestone houses; Como House in South Yarra (1847) is considered one of the finest colonial era regency style homes in Victoria; Toorak House (1849) after which Toorak was named is a significant pre-gold rush Italianate mansion considered the finest in the colony; and, Manor House in Broadmeadows (1850) is a combination of Scottish residential style in bluestone.

Named the capital of the new Colony of Victoria in 1 July 1851 Melbourne even prior to the discovery of gold it was a successful settlement. Having grown mostly due to rich Victorian pastures it had operated as a busy port since 1841 and had a population of approximately 23,000. Despite being the youngest of the colonial capitals, it had overtaken all but Sydney.

1851-1880: Gold Rush era

Following this early settlement period, just after the Colony of Victoria was separated from the Colony of New South Wales in 1851, gold was discovered, and thousands of people flocked to the city from the United Kingdom, as well as Europe and the United States, to seek their fortune on the Victorian goldfields. Within a year Melbourne had overtaken Sydney as Australia's most populous settlement. As a result of the Gold Rush, Melbourne's population grew from 4,000 in 1837 to 300,000 in 1854. Approximately £100 million worth of gold was discovered in the Victorian fields in the 1850s. The gold rush was followed by a growth in pastoral wealth, the development of local industries, railways, suburbs, shops, and ports. The immense wealth generated during this period helped fund the construction of many large public buildings during this period including the State Library, Parliament House, the Town Hall, Old Treasury, Law courts, General Post Office and Royal Exhibition Building. They also include two of celebrated Victorian architect William Wardell's works: St Patrick's Cathedral and Government House.

HM Prison Pentridge built in 1851 to address the explosion of crime from the early gold rush, is one of the most distinctive and intact of Melbourne's large bluestone buildings.

Locally quarried bluestone (basalt) was a distinctive construction material used from Melbourne's earliest days however it became increasingly popular during the gold rush for institutional buildings due to its heavy rusticated effect and its stern, forboding appearance. As such it was used extensively in buildings for enforcement, the military and warehousing most commonly in combination with Renaissance Italianate or ecclesiastical and educational institution buildings where it was often combined with a gothic revival style. HM Prison Pentridge (1851) is particularly notable as one of the largest gold rush era bluestone buildings as well as for its distinctive castellated tudor appearance incorporating medieval style watch towers, arrow slits and panopticons. Other primarily bluestone buildings include the remaining wings of the Old Melbourne Gaol (1852-1854), Williamstown Timeball Tower (1852), St Peter's Church, Eastern Hill transepts (1846-1876), Victoria Barracks (1856-1872), Melbourne Church Of England Grammar (1856), Wesleyan Methodist Church St Kilda (1857-1858) Wesley Church complex (1858-1859) All Saints St Kilda (1858-1882), St Patrick's Cathedral (1858-1939), Seabrook House (1858), St Mary's Dandenong Road (1859-1871), St John's Toorak (1860-1873) Goldsborough Mort & Co Ltd warehouse (1861-1862), Victorian College for the Deaf (1866), Victorian College for the Blind (1868), St Ignatius Richmond (1867-1870), Cathedral College, East Melbourne (1869-1870), St Augustine's Church and School (1869-1929), and Wiliamstown Primary School (1878). Bluestone continued to be used in Melbourne with prominent later examples including the facade of the Carlton & United Brewery (1858-1883). Residential examples while rare, are notable, particularly Bishopscourt (1852), Royal Terrace Fitzroy (1853–1858) D'Estaville Kew (1859) and 157 Hotham Street East Melbourne (1861). The material however proved difficult to shape to finer classical details so in many other city buildings it was instead used as foundation material due to its robust and porous property.

The bluestone Royal Terrace (1853-1854) was the first large example of newly popularised terraced housing.

Terrace house developments also grew in importance, especially to house the new middle class and attached housing, including shop houses, became the dominant form. Early modes were inspired by the colonial georgian, regency and Renaissance Revival. Examples of notable terraces from the gold rush era include Royal Terrace (1853-1854). The demand for more distinguished homes led to the popularity of stucco rendering to simulate stone details. Examples of this new form are evident in Glass Terrace in Fitzroy (1854-1856), along with Clarendon Terrace (1857), Nepean Terrace (1864), and Cyprus Terrace (1867) in East Melbourne. The terrace begin to evolve into the distinctive Melbourne style consisting of high Italianate parapets to hide the roofline and rich cast iron ornament. Early predecessors include Cobden Terrace in Fitzroy (1869-1875), Rochester Terrace in Albert Park (1869-1879) part of the English style square design of St Vincent Place, and Tasma Terrace in East Melbourne (1878) by Charles Webb considered one of the finest three storey terraces in Australia.

Joseph Reed's 1854 competition winning entry for the State Library of Victoria contributed to the strong academic classical theme in the city's early public buildings.

Academic classicism was favoured for large institutions and its execution required more versatile materials with the popularity of stone and stucco features producing more elaborate but stately designs. Prolific Melbourne architect Joseph Reed's contributions include the State Library (1854-1870), Collins Street Baptist Church (1854), facade of the Bank of New South Wales (1856–1857), Royal Society of Victoria building (1859) and Melbourne Town Hall (1869). Others significant examples include: Parliament House (1855-), Victorian Trades Hall (1859) and Supreme Court (1874-1884).

The 1854 Old Quad at Melbourne University, designed by English architect Francis Maloney White helped establish Melbourne's gothic revival beyond religious buildings.

Melbourne's Gothic Revival was strong, particularly in early church design, but late to gain traction for other buildings, though the seeds were sown for its extraordinary later popularity. Among the first secular buildings to incorporate the style was the Old Law School Building and Old Quadrangle at the University of Melbourne (1854-1857), which set an academic theme for the entire campus that is still evident despite the later demolitions of the National Museum (1863) and Wilson Hall (1878). The Charles Webb designed Church Of England Grammar School (1856) helped establish gothic revival's popularity with the private schools and combined bluestone with impressive effect. Architects Crouch and Wilson would further promote this style in their designs for the College for the Deaf (1866) and College for the Blind (1868). Crouch and Wilson would go on to produce a competition winning design for Primary School No.1467 at South Yarra (1874). This influential school design set a precedent for gothic schools which would be templated and rolled out across the city and state by Henry R. Bastow for the Department of Education. An example of Bastow's prominent early work is Primary School No.1479 in St Kilda (1874). Bastow established a preference for polychrome brickwork which would contribute to its growing popularity but also designed in other materials including bluestone at Williamstown Primary School (1878). Faraday Street State School Number 112 (1876-1877) is one of Reed and Barnes notable early works in education but Ormond College (1879-1881) is considered their largest and finest. Despite some pre-gold rush examples, gothic was still rare as a residential style. As the popularity of Italianate styles dominated, tudor revival had fallen out of favour. Notable exceptions include a row of houses at 39-41 Nicholson Street, Abbotsford (1858-1869) and the Joseph Reed designed 157 Hotham Street East Melbourne (1861). Gothic revival purists sought a major religious landmark for the early city, however despite the numerous spires which dotted the early skyline including those of the bluestone Wesley, but with St Patrick's Cathedral remaining incomplete, would not find a true icon until the construction of the Joseph Reed designed Scots Church (1871-1874). Built upon Collins Street hill it was considered to be one of the finest church designs in Australia. Leonard Terry's landmark two storey building in Hawthorn for the ES&A Bank (1873) is an early example of gothic applied to secular buildings and also an early commercial use of Hawthorn brick a mode of building which would become highly popular with architects over the subsequent decades.

Old Treasury, designed by John James Clark in 1857 to hold the enormous amount of gold coming from regional Victoria, is considered to be Australia's finest Renaissance Revival building.

John James Clark's Old Treasury (1858-62) is considered Australia's finest Renaissance Revival building. It features bluestone vaults intended for storing gold mined from the central Victorian goldfields. The Old Treasury, along with his Melbourne Mint (1872), Government House (1874) and Customs House (1876) inspired a brief trend of Renaissance Revival Palazzo style architecture for public buildings which was also used at 2 Treasury Place (1876). While Italianate styles were outnumbered by academic classical for public buildings they would become extremely fashionable for commercial, institutional and residential architecture across the city. Institutional buildings included Victoria Barracks (1856-1872), Leonard Terry's design for the Melbourne Club (1859), the first stage 2 storey Melbourne GPO (1861 - prior to extensions), the Royal Arcade (1870) and Kew Asylum (1871). The Italianate architecture style became the favoured residential style and despite later widespread demolition the city retains a plethora of palatial examples. Viewing towers, in particular became a signal of wealth, popularised by the earlier landmarks Bishopscourt and Toorak House, others followed notably Raheen (1870-1884), Government House (1871-1876), Eildon (1872) and Werribee Park (1874-1877).

Melbourne's Chinatown and nearby Little Lon district emerged during the gold rush and illustrated a significant contrast in style to the stately institutional buildings with their chaotic development among Melbourne's laneways. Portable prefabricated iron buildings were common in early Melbourne's gold rush slums and some remain especially in Fitzroy, Collingwood and Emerald Hill (South Melbourne). Num Pon Soon (1860-1861) in Chinatown, by Melbourne architects Knight & Kerr, is a rare Australian example of Victorian architecture incporating Chinese motifs.

Details of St Michaels Church, Collins Street, 1866, the first example of elaborate polychrome brick in Australia, a style which proved immensely popular in Victorian era Melbourne

Joseph Reed's design for Collins Street Independent Church (1866) (now St Michael's) is notable not only as the earliest examples of elaborate polychrome brickwork in Australia (a style that became highly popular by the 1880s) but also for its unusual floorplan and tower. It was one of the few major church buildings not designed in the popular gothic revival of the time, and its elevated position on the Collins Street hill made it a major landmark of the early city until the construction of nearby Scots Church (1871-1874). Described as Lombardic Romanesque in style, it features a tall square bell tower marking an important street corner, and round Romanesque arches around doors and windows and the open cloisters in each side. The interior was designed in the form of a theatre auditorium, in accordance with the principles of the Congregationalist Church, as a place where all members of the congregation could both hear and see the preacher. It features a sloping floor with tiered seating, and a steep gallery behind a ring of high aches on slender cast iron columns, ensuring good sight lines.

The Royal Exhibition Building (1879), a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Royal Exhibition Building, with its UNESCO World Heritage status is Melbourne's most important building internationally. Built to host the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880–81 it went on to play an enormous part in the cultural identity of the city and resisted many attempts at its demolition. Designed by the architect Joseph Reed it is an eclectic representative of the Byzantine, Romanesque, Lombardic and Italian Renaissance styles. The dome was modeled on the Florence Cathedral, while the main pavilions were influenced by the style of Rundbogenstil and several buildings from Normandy, Caen and Paris. The building has the scale of the French Beaux Arts, with a cruciform plan in the shape of a Latin cross, with long nave-like wings symmetrically placed east–west about the central dome, and a shorter wing to the north.

1880-1893: "Marvellous Melbourne" Land Boom era

Melbourne Stock Exchange (1889) one of a number of elaborate commercial gothic revival building surviving near intersection of Collins and Queen Street

The 1880s saw the price of land start to boom, and London banks were eager to extend loans to men of vision who capitalised on this by speculation, and grand, elaborate offices, hotel and department stores in the city, and endless suburban subdivisions. This was the growth that so astonished visiting journalist George Augustus Sala in 1885, that he dubbed the city "Marvellous Melbourne".

Though most of the tall commercial buildings constructed during the 1880s boom have been lost (including the prominent Federal Coffee Palace and APA Building), many other fine examples still stand today, including the Gothic Bank (1883), the Hotel Windsor (1884), the Venetian Gothic Old Stock Exchange (1888), Safe Deposit building (1889), Lombard Building (1889), Coop's Shot Tower (1889) and Twentyman & Askew's 'high-rise' Stalbridge Chambers (1890).

Other prominent commercial and institutional buildings include the Princess Theatre (1886), Melbourne Athenaeum (1886) and Block Arcade (1893). Prominent public buildings that date to this era include the Victorian Railways Offices (1893) and the Eastern Hill Fire Station (1893).

• 
  Collins Street buildings including the Rialto (1888), Winfield (1889) and Olderfleet buildings (1889)
• 
  Hotel Windsor (1888)
• 
  Safe Deposit building (1889)
• 
  Lombard Building (1889)
• 
  Stalbridge Chambers (1890)
• 
  A.C. Goode House (1891)
• 
  Fink's building (1888), once Melbourne's tallest, demolished in 1969.
• 
  19th-century grand hotel the Federal Coffee Palace (1888), located on the corner of Collins and King Street, demolished in 1971.
• 
  The Queen Anne style APA Building (1889), one of the world's tallest buildings that year, demolished in 1981.
• 
  Melbourne Fish Market (1889), demolished in 1959.
• 
  Town Hall Chambers (1890), demolished in 1968.
• 
  Menzies Hotel (1896), demolished in 1969. Oxford Chambers the tall building in the background was demolished in 1970.
• 
  Equitable Building (1896), demolished in 1959.

1900s–1918: Federation

Flinders Street station (1909)

The turn of the century in Melbourne marked the federation of Australia in 1901. The 1880s landboom had been followed by an equally large crash, the collapse of building societies and some banks, and an almost complete halt in construction by 1893. Sydney fared somewhat better, grew faster, and overtook Melbourne in size and population by 1901. Melbourne remained important thanks to its status as Australia's (interim) capital city, the home of the Commonwealth of Australia. The Victorian Parliament House on Spring Street was handed over to house the parliament of Australia, while the Victorian parliament moved to the Exhibition Buildings. Economic revival in the 1900s saw a resurgence of construction. In this period, architects began to look less to England for inspiration, and more to the United States, particularly the Romanesque Revival.

A major landmark of this period was built when it was finally decided to replace the ad hoc collection of train sheds Flinders Street Station with a grand terminus. A competition was held in 1899, with 17 entries received. The competition was essentially for the detailed design of the station building, since the location of the concourse, entrances, the track and platform layout, the type of platform roofing and even the room layout to some extent was already decided. The first prize, at £500, went to railway employees James Fawcett and HPC Ashworth of Fawcett and Ashworth in 1899. Their design, titled Green Light, was of French Renaissance style and included a large dome and tall clock tower. The train shed over the platforms was intended to have many arched roofs running north-south, but this was never built. Over the next few years, the design was altered with an additional floor, and work on the station building itself began in 1905. Ballarat builder Peter Rodger was awarded the £93,000 contract and the station was originally to be clad in stone, but this exceeded the allocated budget. Red brick with cement render was chosen for the Edwardian style building. Work on the dome began the following year, and delayed construction saw a Royal Commission appointed in May 1910. The Way and Works Branch of the Victorian Railways took over the project, the station being essentially finished by mid-1909. The verandah along Flinders Street and the concourse roof and verandah along Swanston Street were not completed until after the official opening in 1910. The building has been repainted five times in its history, and the last repaint occurred in 2017. The most recent paint job was conducted to match the original colours as closely as possible, obtained through numerous samples of chipped paint which revealed the original colours after being cut in a polyester resin tube.

From 1905 there was much debate about the merit of taller buildings in the city centre, and the idea of a height limit, influenced by the City Beautiful movement, gained popularity. There was also a concern to preserve light and air at lower levels, especially in the ‘little’ streets. Eventually, as part of a suite of rules that also ensured fire proof construction, the City of Melbourne passed a byelaw mandating a 132 ft limit. It was (and still is) popularly believed that this was as high as fire ladders could reach, but in fact the longest ladder was 87 ft, and the limit was based on proportions, being 1+ 1/3 times the 99 ft main street width. This limit stayed in force until the late 1950s, ensuring an evenness to many built up streets.

Nahum Barnet was one of the most prolific architects during the period, while some of his most fantastic buildings such as the YWCA on Collins Street have been demolished, some of his distinctive Edwardian buildings remain including the landmark Alston's Corner (1903–1904) and the facade of the Former Auditorium (1912) both on Collins Street.

Other notable Federation buildings in Melbourne include Abbotsford Convent (1900-1903), Milton House (1901), City Baths (1903-1904), Empire Building (1903), St Kilda Pavilion (1904), Paton Building (1905), 3 Treasury Place (1906-1907), Dimmey's Department Store (1907-1910), Bryant and May Factory (1909), Queen Victoria Hospital (1910), Malvern tram depot (1910), Commonwealth Offices (1911-12), Luna Park (1912), Commercial Traveller's Association (1913) and Read's Stores (1914).

• 
  Abbotsford Convent
• 
  Milton House
• 
  Alston's Building
• 
  City Baths
• 
  Empire Building
• 
  St Kilda Pavilion
• 
  3 Treasury Place
• 
  Dimmey's Department Store
• 
  Bryant and May Factory
• 
  Queen Victoria Hospital Women's Building
• 
  Malvern tram depot
• 
  Commonwealth Offices
• 
  Luna Park
• 
  Commercial Traveller's Association buildings
• 
  Read's Stores

1918-1939: Interwar

The art deco Manchester Unity Building (1927)

The styles of the early 20th century included Federation architecture, Stripped Classical, and then art deco. The rise of the suburbs in Melbourne meant that large acres of land could be purchased and homes could be designed in appointed styles of the land owners and home builders. One of the most popular styles was art deco, and several public city buildings were designed in this style, including the Manchester Unity Building, which mixed art deco with Gothic Revival inspired by the Tribune Tower in Chicago. The building was constructed in 1932 by the Manchester Unity I.O.O.F. in Victoria. Other buildings in the art deco style include the Myer Emporium (1920), T & G Building (1929), the Australasian Catholic Assurance Building (1935) and Mitchell House (1937)–which more closely resembles the Streamline Moderne style. These contemporary styles mirrored an increasingly diversifying city, which reflected the changing international architectural fashions. The Second World War saw a halt to construction by 1942. By the late 1940s, Melbourne boasted an array of styles the eras in which it prospered, including Victorian, Gothic, Queen Anne and the most flourishing style of the early 20th century–art deco.

1940-1960s: Postwar Modernist attitudes

ICI House (1958) was the first building to break Melbourne's long standing height limit, becoming the tallest in Australia and ushering major changes to the city's skyline.

The arrival of the 1950s saw contemporary high rise offices constructed and the ICI House, built in 1955, was Australia's tallest building at the time. ICI House, breaking Melbourne's long standing 132 ft height limit, was the first International Style skyscraper in the country. It symbolised progress, modernity, efficiency and the booming corporate power in a postwar Melbourne. Its development also paved way for the construction of other modern high-rise office buildings, thus changing the shape of Melbourne's already diverse urban centre. Melbourne was the first city in Australia to undergo a post-war high-rise boom beginning in the late 1950s, though Sydney in the following decades built more, with over 50 high-rise buildings constructed between the 1970s–90s. The 1950s and 1960s was a period before heritage controls were enacted, and many commentators now view these years of rampant demolition as one akin to urban vandalism. Whelan the Wrecker, the most successful demolition company, was responsible for most of the destruction of Melbourne's historic buildings. A vast number of city hotels also closed in the 1950s, as a result of blighting liquor laws, which meant that the cost of running a licensed venue outstripped the return. This may have explained the dwindling patronage of Melbourne's grand hotels in the 1950s and 60s.

The tragedy of Melbourne’s modernity culminated in the destruction of 10 landmark buildings, whose architectural heritage rivalled many mid-town Manhattan gems.

— Medium

Another venue that shaped Melbourne's early architectural form is the pub, a licensed drinking establishment traditionally built on corners within the inner-city and city centre, usually no more than two-storeys tall. In the 1920s, there were about 100 corner pubs in Melbourne but this figure diminished to 45 by the 1960s. Today there are approximately 12 operating in the CBD – including The Metropolitan, which is located on the corner of William Street, and first served beer in 1854.

A 1970s mining and financial boom saw many taller buildings constructed in the modern style like 140 William Street (1972).

In 1972, as a result of sustained pressure from the National Trust, Victorian Parliament amended the Town and Country Planning Act to include the "conservation and enhancement of buildings, works, objects and sites specified as being of architectural, historical or scientific interest". The act went onto specify the prohibition of "pulling down", "removal" or "decoration or defacement" to any such building. Because only specified sites were to be protected, the local councils across Melbourne had the task of allocating buildings and places that warranted protection. The City of Melbourne council specified the entire CBD as an area of significance in 1973. However, this blanket protection measure came unstuck in 1975 when the council was threatened with compensation payments to developers if their plans were rejected on heritage grounds, and the issue of compensation was not settled until 1982. At the same time, the Historic Buildings Preservation Act was passed in 1974, protecting at first only 100 places across the state. This was soon expanded to include many of the central city’s finest buildings, though only a handful of the commercial landmarks, and listing did not necessarily ensure preservation. In this context, as well as the many places demolished in the 1960s sometimes without a plan for a replacement, "developers white elephant schemes for central Melbourne proceeded virtually unchecked throughout the 70s", resulting in widespread loss of historic buildings. Heritage listing by the City of Melbourne did not properly occur until 1982, with the listing of about 300 Notable buildings, and large areas declared Heritage Precincts, with the added protection of the re-imposition of the height limit in the central retail area between Russell and Elizabeth Streets, and much lower limits in places such Chinatown, Bourke Hill, and Hardware Lane, which was also pedestrianised.

Controversy arose in 2016 after the historic Corkman Irish Pub in Carlton was illegally demolished overnight by developer Raman Shaqiri, resulting in the State Planning Minister pursuing an order (via the Victorian Administrative Appeals Tribunal) for the two-storey pub to be rebuilt. The site owners were fined AUD$1.325 million after pleading guilty to the process. The site of the pub, which was built in 1858 and was once called the Carlton Inn Hotel, is currently a temporary carpark.

1960s-1980s: Skyscraper boom

Main article: List of tallest buildings in Melbourne

Collins Place twin towers by I. M. Pei were Melbourne's tallest from 1978 to 1986.

Between the late 1970s and 1980s, Melbourne's skyline reached new heights with the construction of several office buildings. Whelan the Wrecker went out of business in the early 1990s and heritage laws were tightened into the mid 1990s. In 1972, 140 William Street (formerly known as BHP House) became the city's first building to exceed the height of 150 metres and was the tallest in Melbourne for a few years. It was constructed in steel and concrete and features an imposing dark glass facade. Designed by the architectural practice Yuncken Freeman alongside engineers Irwin Johnson and Partners, it was heavily influenced by contemporary skyscrapers in Chicago. The local architects sought technical advice from Fazlur Khan of renowned American architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), spending 10 weeks at their Chicago office in 1968. The design ingenuity of 140 William Street was recognised as the building became one of the few heritage registered skyscrapers in Melbourne.

The Optus Centre, which surpassed 140 William Street's height marginally, was completed in 1975. In 1977 Nauru House claimed the feat of the tallest building in Melbourne at a height of 182 metres (7,200 inches)1978, the first of the Collins Place towers was opened, at a height of 185 metres. The design of Collins Place was based around a pair of towers at 45 degree angles to the Hoddle Grid, with the triangular spaces between forming an open plaza to the street and a shopping plaza behind the towers. All open spaces are covered by a space frame, with transparent plastic roofing. The whole complex is clad in tan-coloured precast masonry panels.

In 1986, the Rialto Towers surpassed Sydney's MLC Centre as the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere, with a height of 251 metres. At the time of its opening it was the 23rd–tallest building in the world. In the 1990s, another 9 buildings were constructed in Melbourne that exceeded 150 metres; 5 of these surpassed heights of 200 metres. 101 Collins Street, which is 260-metre-tall (850 ft), became the tallest building in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere in 1991; it was surpassed in height as a result of the completion of the nearby 120 Collins Street that same year. The skyscraper, which stands at 265 metres in height, held the titles for tallest building in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere for fourteen years, until the completion of the Gold Coast's Q1 in 2005.

Late 1980s and 1990s: Postmodern movement

RMIT Building 8's complex and fanciful design was seen as a turning point in Melbourne's strong postmodernist movement

The old Commercial Bank of Australia Limited domed Chamber (1891-1893) was preserved as part of the 333 Collins Street development

ANZ's World Headquarters tudor gothic inspired tower was designed to assimilate the cluster of 19th century gothic revival buildings below

Melbourne's modern legacy began to give way in the 1980s with the culmination of a strong postmodern movement as many decried the continued loss of the city's cultural character and European charm. During this era, new city planning policies introduced new heritage restrictions to discourage facadism, abolishing the plot ratio policies of previous decades, instituting a 10 metre rule to preserve historic buildings, podiums and setbacks for tall buildings to integrate with historic buildings, reduce the wind tunnel effect and increase natural light to the streets.

Some of Melbourne's most important postmodern buildings also emerged during this period. One Collins Street (1984) on a prominent Spring Street corner is seen as a landmark for postmodern Melbourne and is one of few 1980s designs to receive the Maggie Edmond Enduring Architecture Award. It was the first major project to successfully integrate the old and new, preserving and restoring a significant Victorian streetscape including Grosvenor Chambers (1888), Leonard Terry's Campbell House (1877) and a row of three storey Lloyd Tayler designed terraces (1884). One Collins' stepped form, setback style, elegantly minimilist square windows and cut stone-like texture established a strong reputation for emerging firm Denton Corker Marshall (DCM). DCM, however, upon RVIA nomination for the clearly North American palazzo inspired 91-97 William Street (1985-1987) had already begun rejecting any association with the term post-modern. While their later designs appear to reject historic references, the firm did produce two other influential postmodern buildings. Firstly their work in 222 Exhibition Street (TAC House) (1986-88) made an explicit statement against the dominance of glass curtain wall design of the late international style using open steel grill elements, scale, symmetry and a differentiated podium. The firm would later reuse similar elements in the landmark skyscraper 101 Collins Street.

Melbourne's obsession with postmodernism in the late 1980s would spawn many more heritage sympathetic CBD developments particularly in what had become known as the "Paris End" of Collins Street. 90 Collins Street (1987) by Peck von Hartel preserved a Victorian era professional building and mirroring it to create a symmetrical central entrance under a mock stone faced North American style stepped tower. Peck von Hartel would follow with one of the most ambitious projects of postmodern Melbourne - 333 Collins Street (1990) - which not only preserved the old Commercial Bank of Australia Limited domed Chamber but its waterfall design clad in granite and its giant copper dome made a strong postmodern statement on the skyline. 333 Collins Street recreates the original facade of the bank which had been stripped off in the interwar period. The design's faceted concave and convex vertical facade and details show the strong influence from Richmond House in London built a few years earlier. Metier3 won praise from the RAIA for its design for the preserved T&G Building (1928-1939) extension (1990) which created a new extension punctuated by metal studs and balconies designed to blend into the Collins streetscape.

By the 1990s the movement was no longer just about sympathy to Melbourne's heritage character, it was about making a bold new visual statement for the city's future. Daryl Jackson's winning but incomplete 1991 designs for the Melbourne Museum with its modern interpretation of neo-classical domed structures saw him become one of the biggest influencers in the movement. Kisho Kurokawa's Melbourne Central Shopping Centre (1991) successfully bridged modernism and postmodernism incorporating the old shot tower under a modern glass cone.

Nonda Katsalidis emerged as one of the champions of Melbourne's postmodernist movement with his work on the Argus Centre which saw the partial restoration of the old Argus building. His reputation grew with the Melbourne Terrace Apartments (1993), one of the first contemporary developments to feature classical influences.

The tall towers 101 Collins Street and nearby 120 Collins Street (1991) drew inspiration in their design from North American skyscrapers with their stepped massing culminating in prominent central towers. 101 Collins is particularly notable for the giant columns at ground level which were designed to be explicitly decorative and freestanding without bearing any load to make a bold postmodern statement, the interior also had a row of giant order columns however these were removed in later remodelling. The Langham (1991), HWT building (1991) and 530 Collins Street (1991) and Casselden Place (1992) also contributed to Melbourne's 1990s North American looking skyline vying for prominence with the modernist landmarks.

Edmond and Corrigan were seen by many to embody Melbourne's new avant garde with the prominent RMIT Building 8 in the centre of the city which was the first major postmodern CBD building to receive the Victorian Architecture Medal. ANZ's World Headquarters at 100 Queen Street (1993) similarly saw the restoration of a cluster of neo-gothic buildings including the Safe Deposit Building, Former Stock Exchange and Gothic bank by Lovell Chen (however the trade-off was demolition a substantially intact row of tall interwar buildings to make way for the new tower's podium). Storey Hall (1884) extension (1996) by ARM Architecture extended the legacy of Building 8 with what was one of the first examples of Deconstructivism in Melbourne, a style which would be later popularised by Federation Square. The result was two Victorian Architectural winning postmodern building standing virtually side-by-side along with the "The Green Brain" (2010) at Building 22 helped establish RMIT's Swanston Street frontage one of the Australia's most significant postmodern streetscapes as well as one of the most significant interiors, among its many interesting features paying tribute to the notorious abstract Melbourne sculpture Vault (1978).

Some of Melbourne's boldest postmodern statements are now lost, for example the podiums of the Grand Hyatt was remodelled in 2008. Kurokawa's original design for Melbourne Central including its podium featuring a geodesic dome, concave and large faceted oriel windows were lost to remodelling done by ARM in 2006.

Between 1996 and 1997, a less admired Melbourne building became a target of demolition: the streamlined modernist Gas and Fuel Buildings. These structures were built in the late 1960s at a time when modernisation of the city was considered favourable. The two towers, designed by Perrot and Parents, were also known as the Princes Gate Towers. As public opinion swayed back towards the desirability of 19th century heritage, the modernist Gas and Fuel Towers grew to be seen as "ugly and featureless", with no connection to the heritage that surrounded. The Kennett Government's decision to demolish the modernist towers was generally met with approval, and the towers were demolished to make way for Federation Square.

1990s Modernist revival

Kisho Kurokawa's prominent Melbourne Central shopping centre and office tower encapsulated the old helped assert the dominance of modern ideals over the postmodern

By the turn of the 21st Century postmodernism in Melbourne fell out of favour. The 1990s saw modernists hold fast against the postmodern trend and several significant developments emerged. Planners began to repeal the rules relating to podiums and remove height restrictions, often favouring demolition and removal or as a last resort for heritage listed buildings, facadism, resulting in very few old buildings being integrated with new ones. Bourke Place (600 Bourke Street) (1991) and Perrott Lyon Mathieson's Telstra Corporate Centre (1992) were both popular among the architectural community of the time, the latter, which took out an RAIA award, almost single handedly revived the 20th Century late modern style as so many other buildings followed suit. Several of the high profile postmodernists including Denton Corker Marshall (DCM) and Nonda Katsalidis signalled a strong shift to modernism. DCM's work on the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre (1996) and Melbourne Museum (1999) further entrenched the modern. Katsalidis Ian Potter Museum of Art (1998) and Republic Tower (1999) were among the last major examples of postmodernism in the city but also represented a strong swing toward the modern.

Demolition of historic buildings continued. A prominent example was the Hotel Australia, built in a Functionalist/Moderne style in 1939 demolished in 1989. In 2008, one of the last remaining Victorian arcades in the Melbourne CBD was demolished under approval from the planning minister at the time Matthew Guy. The decision and the rapidity of the demolition created public outrage. The building, Eastern Arcade and Apollo Hall, built in 1872, was constructed on the site of the old Haymarket Theatre. It was the third arcade to be built in Melbourne and larger than both Queen's Arcade and the Royal Arcade. The Eastern Arcade was designed by George Johnston and had 68 stores as well as an upper storey. Despite discussions held by the Melbourne City Council to preserve the building or at least its facade, the entire structure was torn down in 2008.

New millennium architecture

Premier Tower, juxtaposed with the heritage-listed Mail Exchange Building (left)

The new millennium saw a tighter attitude towards heritage conservation and a construction boom in Melbourne. On the back of Australia's financial and mining booms between 1969 and 1970, and the establishment of the headquarters of many major companies in the city, resulted in a continual rise in large, modern office buildings being constructed outside of the historic CBD and in newer precincts like Southbank and Docklands to preserve heritage overlays within the city centre.

The 2000s saw a continuation of skyscrapers and tall buildings with the urban renewal opening of the Melbourne Docklands in 2000 and the construction of Eureka Tower, an apartment building which is currently Melbourne's second–tallest skyscraper and the 77th tallest in the world at 92 floors and 297 metres. The glass style building was constructed by Fender Katsalidis Architects. Australia 108 is currently Melbourne's tallest building and the tallest in Australia to its roof, completed in June 2020.

• 
  Eureka Tower, Melbourne's second tallest building
• 
  Australia 108 at Southbank
• 
  Atrium inside Federation Square
• 
  Apartments in St Kilda
• 
  Garden Building, RMIT University

Monuments and structures

Shrine of Remembrance in Kings Domain

Melbourne's metropolitan area is dotted with structures and memorials dedicated to various different historical events of significance. Perhaps the most notable, located in Kings Domain, is the Shrine of Remembrance, an art deco monument originally built to honour the men and women who served in the First World War, but now seen as a symbol for all Australians involved in war. Designed by architects and World War I veterans Phillip Hudson and James Wardrop, the Shrine is built in a classical style and is based on the Tomb of Mausolus at Halicarnassus and the Parthenon in Athens, Greece. The defining element located at the top of the memorial's ziggurat roof is based on the Choragic Monument of Lysicrates. Constructed using Tynong granite, the building once consisted only of the main sanctuary which was surrounded by the ambulatory. The sanctuary contains the marble Stone of Remembrance, which features an inscription stating "Greater love hath no man". Beneath the sanctuary lies a crypt, which contains a bronze statue of a soldier father and son representing two generations, as well as panels listing every unit of the Australian Imperial Force.

Federation Square

Federation Square, built on a concrete deck above railway lines, covering an area of 3.2 hectares (7.9 acres), is a mixed-used development built in the early 2000s. The buildings in the square were designed in a deconstructivist style with modern minimalist shapes. The complex of buildings forms a rough U-shape around the main open-air square, oriented to the west. The eastern end of the square is formed by the glazed walls of The Atrium. While bluestone is used for the majority of the paving in the Atrium and St. Paul's Court, matching footpaths elsewhere in central Melbourne, the main square is paved in 470,000 ochre-coloured sandstone blocks from Western Australia and invokes images of the Outback. The paving is designed as a huge urban artwork, called Nearamnew, by Paul Carter and gently rises above street level, containing a number of textual pieces inlaid in its undulating surface. The square also contains a large television screen, which has broadcast a number of national addresses, including a 2007 speech from then Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, making an apology to the Stolen Generation of indigenous Australians. The square houses the Australian Centre for the Moving Image and the SBS Headquarters.

Town halls and civic centres

Main article: List of town halls in Melbourne

The South Melbourne Town Hall (1879)

Each municipality in Melbourne is represented by its own town hall. The City of Melbourne's central municipal building is located on the northeast corner of Swanston and Collins Streets–it is the oldest town hall in Melbourne's metropolitan area, constructed in 1887 in Second Empire style, by the iconic local architect Joseph Reed and Barnes. The building is topped by Prince Alfred's Tower, named after the Duke. The tower includes a 2.44 m diameter clock, which was started on 31 August 1874, after being presented to the council by the Mayor's son, Vallange Condell. It was built by Smith and Sons of London. The longest of its copper hands measures 1.19 m long, and weighs 8.85 kg. The Main Auditorium includes a magnificent concert organ, now comprising 147 ranks and 9,568 pipes. The organ was originally built by Hill, Norman & Beard (of England) in 1929 and was recently rebuilt and enlarged by Schantz Organ Company of the United States.

South Melbourne Town Hall, which represented the now amalgamated areas of South Melbourne, Port Melbourne and St Kilda, is one of the second oldest town hall's and civic centres built in Melbourne, completed in 1879 in an elaborate Victorian Academic Classical style with French Second Empire features, dominated by a very tall multi-stage clock tower. The building is on the Victorian Heritage Register.

Arcades and laneways

Further information: Lanes and arcades of Melbourne

Block Arcade

The many laneways and arcades of Melbourne have become internationally famous. Not only to they boast national cultural significance in Australia, but they have come to collectively represent Melbourne. The abundance of lanes in the Melbourne city centre reflects the town planning of Melbourne–the Hoddle Grid, they originated as service laneways for horses and carts. In some parts of the city, notably the Little Lonsdale area, they were associated with the city's gold-rush era slums. Notable laneways include Centre Place and Degraves Lane. Melbourne's numerous shopping arcades reached a peak of popularity in the late-Victorian era and in the interwar years. These notably include Block Place and Royal Arcade. Some notable demolished arcades include Coles Book arcade and Queens Walk arcade. Cathedral Arcade, in the Nicholas Building (1927), was built in the art deco style and reflects Melbourne's 1920s architecture with glass domes, leadlight, arches, and shopfronts with detailed wood paneling.

Since the 1990s Melbourne's lanes, particularly the pedestrianised ones, have gentrified. Officialdom has recognised their heritage value, and they attract interest from Australia and around the world. Some of the lanes have become particularly notable for their acclaimed urban art.

Bridges

Main article: List of bridges in Melbourne

Bolte Bridge (1999)

Melbourne's positioning spanning the Yarra River, and on the coast, necessitates several water crossings. Bolte Bridge, Australia's longest bridge, is a large twin cantilever bridge that spans the Yarra, and Victoria Harbour in the Docklands, to the west of the Melbourne central business district. Bolte Bridge was designed by architects Denton Corker Marshall from 1996 to 1999 at a cost of $75 million. The bridge features two 140 metre high silver (grey concrete) towers, situated on either side of the roadway at the midpoint of the bridge's span. These two towers are an aesthetic addition by the architects, and are not joined to the main body of the bridge. Several other pedestrian bridges that cross the Yarra River, connecting Southbank to the Melbourne city centre were built between the 19th-century and the 1990s. The most notable early multi-purpose crossing of the Yarra is the Princes Bridge, constructed in 1888. A more recent example of a bridge crossing over the Yarra is the Evan Walker Bridge, completed in 1992.

The wrought-iron arch Queens Bridge, one of the oldest remaining bridges in the city, was constructed in 1889 has five wrought iron plate girder spans, and is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. The bridge was built by contractor David Munro, and replaced a timber footbridge built in 1860. The Morell Bridge, built in 1899, is notable as the first bridge in Victoria that was built using reinforced concrete. The bridge features elaborate decorations on the three arch spans, including prominent dragon motifs as well as ornamental Victorian lights. The gutters on the bridge are cobbled bluestone, with a single lane bitumen strip running down the middle. The Bridge is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.

• 
  Church Street Bridge
• 
  Princes Bridge
• 
  Hawthorn Bridge

Residential architecture

See also: Australian residential architectural styles

Melbournia Terrace, Carlton, Victoria. Completed in 1877. Rows of terraces built between the 1870s and 1890s with Italianate parapets and iron lacework are typical of the housing in the inner suburbs of Melbourne

Like many other Australian capital cities, Melbourne's suburbs and residential architecture has been shaped by the city's extensive history–thus it is defined by a variation in style, ranging from elaborate Victorian properties to more contemporary postwar homes. To counter the trend towards low-density suburban residential growth, the government began a series of controversial public housing projects in the inner city by the Housing Commission of Victoria, which resulted in demolition of many neighbourhoods and a proliferation of high-rise towers.

Upper class suburbs like Toorak flourished during Melbourne's gold rush era and feature remnants of the prosperous past, as does South Yarra, Malvern and various other eastern suburbs. These areas have Tudor, Tudorbethan, Georgian and Victorian architecture in abundance, among many other styles. More middle class areas like Camberwell and Caulfield are characterised by Bungalows. American architects like Frank Lloyd Wright and Louis Sullivan have also had influence on the residential style of Melbourne.

• 
  Rippon Lea Estate
• 
  Goodrest Mansion, South Yarra
• 
  Raheen Tower, Kew
• 
  Chastleton House, Toraak
• 
  Stonnington Mansion, Malvern

Gallery

• 
  State Library of Victoria
• 
  Bank Place
• 
  St Paul's Cathedral
• 
  Trinity College
• 
  Parliament House Melbourne
• 
  Scots Church

See also

• Architecture of Australia
• List of heritage listed buildings in Melbourne
• List of tallest buildings in Melbourne
• Victorian architecture

References

Literary references

• Annear, Robyn (2005). A City Lost & Found: Whelan the Wrecker's Melbourne. Black Inc. ISBN 978-1-45967-670-1.
• Chapman, Heather; Stillman, Judith (2014). Lost Melbourne. Pavilion. ISBN 978-1-910496-74-9.
• Davies, Jenny (2008). Beyond the Façade: Flinders Street, More than just a Railway Station. Publishing Solutions. ISBN 978-1-921488-03-0.
• Davison, Graeme (1978). The Rise and Fall of Marvellous Melbourne. Melbourne University Press. ISBN 978-0-522851-23-6.
• Goad, Philip (2012). Encyclopaedia of Australian Architecture. Cambridge University Press. p. 543.
• Griffiths, Jessica (2014). Imperial Culture in Antipodean Cities, 1880-1939. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137385-73-4.
• Pennsylvania State University (1990). The history of the Liquor Trades Union in Victoria. Victorian Branch, Federated Liquor and Allied Industries Employees Union of Australia. p. 60.
• Taylor, William (2005). "Lest We Forget: the Shrine of Remembrance, its redevelopment and the heritage of dissent" (PDF). Fabrications. 15 (2): 102. doi:10.1080/10331867.2005.10525213. S2CID 162193990. Retrieved 12 July 2008.