East Melbourne Victoria AUS

Client: Becton
Completion: 2009
Construction Value: $80M
Awards: 2010/ AIA (Vic Chapter)
Best Overend Award for Residential Architecture - Multiple Housing

“This design develops a significant advancement for multi-residential architecture, through its deft combination of market realities and higher order civic ideas.”

Awards Jury Citation, AIA Vic Chapter

The design of One East Melbourne has evolved from a study of the site and its unique constraints, and in response to the urban design conditions of its location. The site is the interface of a residential zone, typified by the particular form of Wellington Gardens. If we accept the “bell curve” form of western cities then our new tower should fit between the height of the high city towers and the intermediate buildings that are adjacent to the eastern edge of the CBD. Thus the proposal steps down from city. The proposal stands not only as a scale mediator from city to city-edge but it is also the urban sphinx, standing at the gateway to the CBD.

While the building is a singular structure it has been articulated into its component parts; expressing the functional differences but also to activate the street line, and the overall views of the building in the round. The design, in short, is the result of considerable effort to realize the urban potential of the site and create a building to the highest design standards for this once-only location.