Melbourne design practice HASSEL and New York-based architecture firm Solid Objects Idenburg Liu (SO-IL) have been selected to lead a local and international team to transform Melbourne’s Arts Precinct in Southbank.
The Melbourne Arts Precinct transformation project is set to include an elevated inner-city park and new pedestrian connections into and throughout the area to easily move from Southbank and the Yarra through Melbourne’s iconic St Kilda Road cultural institutions.
The project will deliver 18,000 square metres of new and renewed open public space in what is considered to be one of Australia’s most densely populated suburbs.
HASSELL and SO–IL Project Directors, Ben Duckworth (HASSELL) and Jing Liu (SO–IL), said this is a rare opportunity to help shape how Melburnians and millions of international visitors experience the Arts Precinct’s cultural offering.
“The objective of the Melbourne Arts Precinct Masterplan is to improve the functional aspects of the existing institutions, incorporate the two new facilities, and invigorate and maximise the public experience in this exciting new chapter of the precinct,” Mr Duckworth and Liu said.
“It’s about making it work and making it memorable – a new place people want to go.”
The winning proposal brings nature to the forefront and will feature picturesque seasonal gardens by world-renowned horticulturalists Nigel Dunnett and James Hitchmough (UK).
Minister for Creative Industries Martin Foley also commented that the project will reshape Melbourne’s cultural and creative precinct, bringing more people than ever into a fantastic new public space and improving access to everything that the Arts Centre and the NGV have to offer.
“The new public open space will draw people into the heart of the rejuvenated Sturt Street Arts precinct which continues to grow as the home to over 40 different arts and cultural organisations and performance spaces,” he said.
The Victorian Government has invested $208 million over two years in the first phase of the project, to kick-start planning and enable the NGV and Arts Centre Melbourne to begin raising philanthropic funds for the revitalisation.
The project is anticipated to create a staggering 10,000 jobs during construction, and 260 ongoing jobs.
Once complete, the Melbourne Arts Precinct is expected to draw in an additional 3 million people each year.