Creating a new inner urban future
Melbourne’s St Kilda has a fascinating and varied history and whenever you visit you always find something new (or old) and interesting to lead you off on a tangent.
Never boring, the eclectic mix of residents representing most socioeconomic groups has one thing in common: they are passionate about their ‘place’.
While the community focus is often on the St Kilda triangle or seaside – which was once Victoria’s first official tourist precinct – back just a bit from the attractive waterfront is a mess of roads coming together to form St Kilda Junction.
Back in 1975 the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works oversaw some work which ripped the heart from the Junction – widening high street, destroying the historic shopping precinct of 150 buildings (including the Junction Hotel), and changed its name to St Kilda Road. The resulting traffic mess and lack of soul is what we see today.
David Lock Associates and Arup have this week launched a student competition, asking planning and urban design students to put their talents to re-monumentalising St Kilda Junction and restoring St Kilda road South (the former High St) as the living backbone of the suburb. We want them to develop an urban design framework to create a new future for the Junction, whilst acknowledging and respecting the past.
Did you know there is a 300 year old, ancient Corroboree Tree at the Junction?
Or how about the fact that Windsor Railway Station was originally called Chapel Street Station and is currently on the Victorian Heritage Register?
And it’s interesting to note that the first passenger train from Flinders St to St Kilda took just 12 minutes 158 years ago – do we do any better now?
What would you like to see to bring St Kilda Junction and St Kilda Road South into the 21st Century?
If you know any students who could show us the way forward, let them know about ‘Re:imagine the Junction’: www.reimaginethejunction.com.au
Initial registrations close on 11 August.
Never boring, the eclectic mix of residents representing most socioeconomic groups has one thing in common: they are passionate about their ‘place’.
While the community focus is often on the St Kilda triangle or seaside – which was once Victoria’s first official tourist precinct – back just a bit from the attractive waterfront is a mess of roads coming together to form St Kilda Junction.
Back in 1975 the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works oversaw some work which ripped the heart from the Junction – widening high street, destroying the historic shopping precinct of 150 buildings (including the Junction Hotel), and changed its name to St Kilda Road. The resulting traffic mess and lack of soul is what we see today.
David Lock Associates and Arup have this week launched a student competition, asking planning and urban design students to put their talents to re-monumentalising St Kilda Junction and restoring St Kilda road South (the former High St) as the living backbone of the suburb. We want them to develop an urban design framework to create a new future for the Junction, whilst acknowledging and respecting the past.
Did you know there is a 300 year old, ancient Corroboree Tree at the Junction?
Or how about the fact that Windsor Railway Station was originally called Chapel Street Station and is currently on the Victorian Heritage Register?
And it’s interesting to note that the first passenger train from Flinders St to St Kilda took just 12 minutes 158 years ago – do we do any better now?
What would you like to see to bring St Kilda Junction and St Kilda Road South into the 21st Century?
If you know any students who could show us the way forward, let them know about ‘Re:imagine the Junction’: www.reimaginethejunction.com.au
Initial registrations close on 11 August.
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