[+] Development Uplift as Greenline Snakes across Melbourne

A 4km trail of green space designed to act as a magnet to a revitalised Melbourne city riverside is also forecast to propel a development surge in its wake. The project has been tipped to bring a $740-million net benefit, according to an Ernst &amp; Young report into the city’s Greenline project. For decades, Australian planners have chased the dream of creating metropolitan cities of European standards—with mixed success. In Melbourne, that dream seems certain to become a reality as the city’s identity shifts. The Victorian capital’s Greenline project will connect five precincts with a 4km walking track on the north side of the Birrarung (Yarra River). The final masterplan was approved by the Future Melbourne Committee late last year with an estimated cost of $315.6 million. Work on the first stage is due to begin soon. Along this new promenade, a story of Country will wind its way from Birrarung Marr past Federation Square and Flinders Street Station to connect the CBD with Docklands, and will likely provide uplift to valuations and planning propositions in the area. The business case estimates the Greenline project will deliver a benefit-to-cost ratio of $3.29 for every dollar spent, attracting an additional $1.9 billion of private sector investment. And the project’s economic uplift is tipped to deliver 110,000sq m of new commercial floor space and 4000 additional homes. ▲ The first three precincts in the Greenline will connect the river from Princess Bridge to the Crown Plaza, creating much-needed accessability. The project will have five interconnected sections—Birrarung Marr, The Falls, River Park, Maritime and Salt Water Wharf. The City of Melbourne partnered with the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, the Registered Aboriginal party for the Greenline Project area. ASPECT Studios co-director Kirsten Bauer is one of the lead designers on the project, alongside TCL. “The big aim is to help reorientate the city to the river ... it does it broadly at the moment but when you actually get to the river, the experience is fairly poor,” Bauer says. “It’s creating a public edge to the river which is fully accessible—at the moment the station has its little bit, Birrarung Marr has its relationship, Batman Park has a bit. “All these little bits do not feel like a cohesive whole and you don’t feel like you could promenade along it. “It’s been an incremental thing from when Melbourne was founded in the 1800s because it was originally a port area.” ▲ The two precincts planned from the World Trade Centre to the Bolt Bridge in Melbourne’s transformative Greenline. Reinventing riversides plays a prominent role in telling the story of cities, and some do it better than others. “Most great cities have a really strong civic relationship with their river and you look to the great example of Chicago,” Bauer says. “They reinvented their relationship with the river that was more industrial and they converted it to these incredible civic spaces. That was a great outcome for the city economically and socially. “The transformation was quite dramatic and here we have the opportunity to achieve that as well. “It doesn’t mean taking out everything that’s there, as a lot of it is important infrastructure, but rather how we can insert back in a better environment and better experience.” Bauer says that a big even-level promenade was planned on the southside of the Yarra, but that wouldn’t work on the north so there were other avenues to explore. “It will be different because Southbank is more of a hard urban promenade like Paris along the Seine—it’s very what you would call semi-European,” she says. “The northbank will be different and speak more to traditional owner values—caring for Country, thinking about biodiversity and being in nature within the city.” ▲ Renders of (clockwise from top left) The Banana Alley Vaults, the Turning Basin and Enterprise Park, World Trade Centre and Collins Wharf Park. The Greenline is also an opportunity to tell the story of Melbourne in an accessible and tangible way. “People will be able to engage with the culture of Melbourne and traditional owner culture more,” Bauer says. “It’s the story of Melbourne and pre-Melbourne as well—let’s celebrate the First Nations culture, because we’re just a blip of a few hundred years. “We are at a point where that is important to our identity. “This is about finding our own voice and identity and that will be of great benefit.” Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp says it is a transformational project, years in the making. “The Greenline will revitalise the north bank of the Yarra River, creating thousands of jobs, attracting waves of new visitors and injecting millions of dollars into our economy,” Capp says. “We need to be ambitious and this is exactly the sort of project Melbourne needs to grow, drive investment and cement our position as Australia’s most liveable city. “We’re powering ahead with work on this project, with Site 1 works on Birrarung Marr beginning early this year, which will help showcase the transformative benefits of this project. “Detailed design works for the other precincts is well under way and we’re thrilled that two of Australia’s leading landscape architecture firms are on board to help us make this vision a reality.” Capp says the city will have more news to share about the next steps for the project in coming months. 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[+] Development Uplift as Greenline Snakes across Melbourne

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