Gurrowa Place redesign approved

City of Melbourne councillors have endorsed revised designs for two towers in Lendlease’s $1.7 billion Gurrowa Place development, following changed market conditions and conditions attached to the project’s federal environment and heritage approval.

At the June 16 Future Melbourne Committee meeting, councillors voted unanimously to support amendments to the QVM Southern Precinct Development Plan and the planning permit for towers 1 and 2.

The revised design “reduced massing” near the heritage Franklin St stores and provided “a much more respectful interface”, councillors were told.

The endorsement came despite questions from Cr Andrew Rowse about wind impacts from the 29- and 47-storey north-facing towers, and concerns from Friends of Queen Victoria Market that the upcoming review of market operations could have significant implications and should be allowed to run its course before decisions were made.

With the Minister for Planning the ultimate decision-maker, councillors were advised that delaying their decision could risk the council having no input. The amendments had also been reviewed by the Office of the Victorian Government Architect.

A notable detail to emerge from submissions was that any trees in the 1.8-hectare Market Square park, to be created over the current outdoor car park, would need to be planted in containers.

Kate Gray from Lovell Chen told councillors this was because, under last year’s federal approval, no excavation could occur within the footprint of the Old Melbourne Cemetery.

The main design changes include setting tower 1, closest to Flagstaff Gardens, further back from the Franklin St stores, which are due to be redeveloped, and converting the building from office to residential use.

That shift has seen architects adopt “a revised form” comprising three distinct elements that step up in height from west to east.

Planner Sarah Macklin from Urbis, which has worked with Lendlease on the development, said the primary change was “the setback of tower 1 to create more breathing space for the heritage Franklin St stores”.

“Tower 1 was originally approved as a commercial building and approval is now sought to change the use,” she said.

“This responds to the more slender form of the [revised] tower 1, and also of the market conditions that have changed.”

The conversion would increase the combined number of dwellings in towers 1 and 2 from 569 to 1129.

The two towers are together valued at $553 million and will include a mix of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.

They will also include 10 per cent affordable housing, adding 53 affordable dwellings to the project and lifting the overall total from 81 to 134.

Ms Macklin said the affordable homes would be transferred to a registered housing agency in perpetuity and rented at a maximum of 30 per cent of gross household income.

The third tower, a 53-storey building being developed separately by student accommodation provider Scape, is expected to contain around 1150 beds.

Responding to project documents, Cr Rowse raised concerns about possible downdrafts and gusting winds in Market Square, as well as “an east-west facing wind tunnel” between the new buildings and the Franklin St stores.

He noted that, based on the wind modelling diagrams provided, 85 per cent of the park appeared to sit above the “sitting comfort” threshold for wind.

Are we inadvertently creating a park next to the market where we expect people to sit and eat food, but we expect there to be significant downdraft and gusty winds as a result of the infrastructure?  he asked.

City of Melbourne planning executive Julian Edwards said, “wind implications” could not be completely avoided, but that the revised design improved “the amount of sitting and standing comfort throughout the area”.

Council infrastructure head Rick Kwasek said any wind mitigation required in Market Square would be considered through the separate park design process, for which the council is responsible.

Councillors Roshena Campbell, Rafael Camillo, Kevin Louey, Andrew Rowse, Olivia Ball, Davydd Griffiths and Mark Scott voted in favour of supporting the planning amendments.

Lord Mayor Nick Reece and councillors Gladys Liu, Philip Le Liu and Owen Guest were absent. •

Caption: Figure 5 - Render images of approved and amended Tower 1 as viewed from Flagstaff Gardens to the west (Source: Application).