Melbourne Square to add some much needed green infrastructure to Southbank
Over the course of the last week OSK Property has released images of a new Southbank park within its Melbourne Square development. The large public park will occupy more than 20 per cent of overall site and will be one of the first stages of the project to be delivered.
OSK Property engaged landscape architects, Taylor Cullity Lethlean (TCL) for the park, who are perhaps best known locally for their award-winning work at Birrarung Marr, the Australian Garden in Cranbourne, Sidney Myer Music Bowl and the National Arboretum in Canberra.
Melbourne Square’s dynamic public realm will be a centerpiece for Southbank, one that can be actively programmed for events, or enjoyed at leisure. The park is part of a network of gardens inspired by Melbourne’s iconic Royal Botanic Gardens and qualities from other cities such as Paris, Berlin and Spain.
As this is such an urban environment, we have created vistas and seating nestled among the greenery. Generous promenades and plazas encourage the Italian tradition of promenading – taking an evening walk with family and friends. It’s about creating opportunities for residents of Melbourne Square and other buildings in Southbank to engage with nature.
- TCL Managing Director, Perry Lethlean
An amphitheatre-inspired space is created via a gently rising slope which includes a water feature, cascading down the pathway leading visitors up to the café terrace, providing a gateway for visitors into the development. Stairs connect to an elevated terrace, with views over the lawns and gardens and a number of retail and alfresco dining offerings.
Melbourne Square will add to the area’s continuing transformation along with the City of Melbourne’s commitment to create a new parkland development for Southbank Boulevard. The large park will be actively programmed upon completion to host events for Southbank residents such as markets and cultural activities.
Citing the City of Melbourne's 2015 Places for People report, Lord Mayor Robert Doyle said one of the key drivers for projects such as Council's Southbank Boulevard Rejuvenation and OSK Property's Melbourne Square park was to address the imbalance in the number of residents in the densely populated suburb with access to green open space.
In the past 25 years, I’ve seen Southbank go from a wasteland of old factories and warehouses to Melbourne’s densest suburb, and the only City of Melbourne suburb in Australia’s 20 densest suburbs. That has meant that Southbank has less open space than any other postcode in the municipality, at just three square metres per resident.
Our 2015 Places for People report revealed that just 18 per cent of Southbank residents accessed open space locally compared with 90 per cent in Docklands and 31 per cent in the central city.
That’s why the City of Melbourne tries, wherever and whenever possible, to turn asphalt into green open space in the inner city: it’s for the benefit of those residents who are purchasing with the confidence of employment and recreation but not always on the basis of open space
- Lord Mayor Robert Doyle, "Rejuvenation of Southbank Boulevard to reinvigorate suburb with green space" Domain, May 19, 2017
IN BRIEF
• Large public park spanning 3,700 sqm will provide Southbank with much-needed green infrastructure
• On completion Melbourne Square will comprise six towers, retail outlets including a supermarket, childcare and health services
• Residents will have access to a 48-metre long swimming pool, private gardens, gymnasium, entertainment facilities and more
