Far East Consortium Unveils Upper West Side Rooftop Garden

Hong Kong listed developer Far East Consortium has unveiled a stunning vertical green rooftop at its 2,500-apartment Upper West Side development in Melbourne.

Located in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD, between Spencer, Bourke and Lonsdale Streets, Upper West Side’s communal rooftop represents almost one acre of landscaped podium rooftop gardens, lounge areas, barbecue spaces, resort-style pool and a horizontal rock-climbing wall area.

Designed by Cottee Parker Architects in conjunction with njr and associates, Far East’s green rooftop amenity cost about $3.5 million and includes a range of soft and hard landscaping features to enable greater recreational opportunities for residents, setting a new standard for inner-city living.

Lead architect, Shane Williams of Cottee Park Architects said the space was designed to allow residents and their visitors the opportunity to relax in a space as close to a natural environment as possible despite living in an apartment building.

“When designing Upper West Side’s outdoor rooftop spaces, we carefully considered how each plant would establish over the next 10 to 20 years, choosing plants that had colour, vibrancy and variety, with fruit-bearing, flowering and edible vegetable species included to ensure we could create a sensory pleasing garden for residents,” says Shane Williams.

“Each rooftop space varies in size, weaving in and out between buildings, with the various podiums and tower roofs not only offering various levels of quiet and intimacy for residents but also designed to capture optimum rainfall, to in turn irrigate and cultivate all on-site planting.”

“Urban forestation is very topical at the moment and we were keen to embrace this as much as possible with Upper West Side. In addition to notably lowering peak temperatures caused by hard-surface heat radiation, the rooftop design will retain storm water flow for continued plant growth,” says Shane Williams.

Another key point of difference to Upper West Side is ‘The Bouldering Cave’ - an area devoted solely to a set of rock climbing walls. Strategically positioned, the walls have an organic appearance and are crafted with a cementitious material, while the floors manufactured with a recycled rubber material, to allow residents to feel they are climbing on actual cliff faces.