Architecture of Melbourne

Skyscrapers along Collins Street have been set back to preserve Victorian architecture from the 1800s.

The architecture of Melbourne, the second largest city in Australia, is characterised by an extensive juxtaposition of old and new architecture. The city is noted for preserving a significant amount of Victorian architecture and has some of the largest in the country. Additionally, it features a vast array of modern architecture, with around 60 skyscrapers over 100m in the city centre which have deliberately been set back off of thoroughfare's and streets to preserve historic architecture—leading to the title of "Australia's most European city". This juxtaposition of old and new has given Melbourne a reputation as a city of no characterising architectural style, but rather an accumulation of buildings dating from the present back until the European settlement of Australia.

Skyscrapers

Despite the city's historic preservation, Melbourne features a large collection of high-rise buildings. To counter the trend towards low-density suburban residential growth, the government began a series of controversial public housing projects in the inner city by the Housing Commission of Victoria, which resulted in demolition of many neighbourhoods and a proliferation of high-rise towers. Furthermore, Australia's financial and mining booms between 1969 and 1970 resulted in establishment of the headquarters of many major companies in the city and saw a continual rise in large, modern office buildings being constructed, putting Melbourne on par with Sydney which underwent a skyscraper boom in the late 1960s and 70s.

The late 80s and early 90s saw five of some Melbourne's tallest buildings constructed; 120 Collins Street, 101 Collins Street (both 1991) and the Rialto Towers (1986)—the tallest office building in the Southern Hemisphere, when measured to its roof. Other Australian buildings when measured to their spire reach taller heights, however. The 2000s saw a continuation of skyscrapers and tall buildings with the urban renewal opening of the Melbourne Docklands in 2000 and the construction of Eureka Tower, an apartment building which is currently Melbourne's tallest and the 77th tallest in the world at 92 floors and 297 metres. The glass style building was constructed by Fender Katsalidis Architects.

Gallery

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  530 Collins Street
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  Australian Centre for Moving Image
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  A.C Goode House (1891)
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  Bank Place
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  The Royal Exhibition Building
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  Melbourne Central
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  Alstons Building
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  Eureka Tower, Melbourne's tallest building from the Yarra River
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  St Paul's Cathedral, contrasted by modern office buildings
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  Trinity College
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  Parliament House Melbourne
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  Scots Church
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  Rialto Towers
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  Freshwater Place
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  Gothic and Victorian buildings on Collins Street
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  Windsor Hotel
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  Windsor Hotel
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  Old Rialto Buildings
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  Winfield Building
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  Stalbridge Chambers
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  Apartments in St Kilda
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  120 Collins Street
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  Melbourne Hyatt Hotel
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  NAB Tower

See also

• List of tallest buildings in Melbourne
• Architecture of Australia