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CUB SITE DEVELOPMENT The CUB site is a key urban node that sits at the other end of the Shrine of Remembrance axis, bisecting the CBD grid. It was originally the home of the Carlton United Brewery, and has lain idle for 20 years. RMIT purchased the site in the mid-1990's. It is being redeveloped by Grocon, in partnership with RMIT. An invited competition was run for the various buildings across the site. The commissioning competition jury included Professor Leon van Schaik of RMIT, Ms Sophie Patitsas from the Department of Sustainability and Environment and three design and development managers from Grocon. The competition was endorsed by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects and conducted under competition guidelines of the Institute. The taller buildings will be built near the city end of the site, with lower structures tapering off towards Melbourne University. The winning proposals are documented below: RMIT Design Hub Architect: Sean Godsell Architects in association with PeddleThorp Architects Project under development, commissioned 2007 Sean Godsell is an RMIT Master of Architecture - Invited Program alumni  design hub areas (high res)  Design Hub plans (high res)    Project Notes This landmark facility will be a collaborative research environment for trans-disciplinary teams from RMIT and industry to work together to innovate by design. It will draw together design professionals, engineers, technologists, scientists, social scientists, entrepreneurs, government and the community and, in doing so: * raise awareness and disseminate use of design in industry; * grow design capability in the Victorian economy and * help develop new products, services and constructed environments and design futures.   Article: Design Hub RMIT Property Services International Media: INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION NEWS ITEM ON RMIT DESIGN HUB BUILDING More than 210 million TV viewers across China and south-east Asia have watched this Phoenix Satellite Television news segment on RMIT University’s innovative Design Hub, designed by RMIT Architecture alumnus Sean Godsell RMIT Openline news  Section of the proposed CUB site redevelopment showing the Shrine of Remembrance visual axis Commercial and Residential Proposals for the CUB Site CUB Masterplan and Building 2 Architect: NHArchitecture Project under development, commissioned 2007  Project Notes: NHArchitecture have been appointed to oversee the master plan and urban design of the CUB site redevlopment. The project will deliver 120,000sq m of offices and 600 apartments, with 150 underground parking spaces. The Swanston Street vista to the Shrine of Remembrance will be maintained with a public promenade extending into the new development. The site also combines the heritage dimension with the old Malthouse building and bluestone facades fronting Bouvere street. The mixed use development will be composed from a variety of building heights forming a new precinct at the north of the city. The site will forge active and vibrant connections between its main public spaces and the neighbourhood. A new urban park will be important features of the development. A competition was run for each of the buildings, encouraging a diversity of architecture. A list of ten architects invited to compete for five sites NHArchitecture have been commissioned to design Building 2 in the CUB development. This building is central to the north of the site and addresses both Queensberry street and the internal plaza area to the south. It will form a crucial role tying together diverse neighbours and in section, help to grade upwards from Carlton to the heights of the CBD. As masterplanners, NHArchitecture will be the ongoing curators and co-ordinators of the ensemble of five architectural firms including themselves.  CUB Building 1, Corner Bouverie and Queensberry Streets. 11 Storeys. Architects: McBride Charles Ryan Architects, Melbourne Project under development, commissioned 2007 PRACTICE DIRECTOR, RMIT ARCHITECTURE PROFESSIONAL DEGREE & RESEARCH DEGREE ALUMNUS Robert McBride RMIT Bachelor of Architecture, 1987 RMIT Master of Architecture (by project), 1992 CUB Building 3 - Mixed-use Retail/Residential/Commercial Building Architect: Minifie Nixon Project under development, commissioned 2007 PRACTICE DIRECTOR, RMIT ARCHITECTURE ACADEMIC, PROFESSIONAL DEGREE & RESEARCH DEGREE ALUMNUS Paul Minifie, RMIT Architecture Senior Lecturer, RMIT Bachelor of Architecture, RMIT Master of Architecture (UAL) PRACTICE DIRECTOR, RMIT ARCHITECTURE ACADEMIC & PROFESSIONAL DEGREE ALUMNUS Jan van Schaik, RMIT Bachelor of Architecture      Architects Notes: From a list of ten architects invited to compete for five sites Minifie Nixon have been chosen unanimously by an expert design panel with representatives from RMIT University, the Department of Sustainability and Environment and Grocon to design a 10 level 1,000m2 floor plate building with retail at lower levels and commercial and/or residential above. The competition was endorsed by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. Located on the corner of Swanston street and Queensbury street, the north eastern portion of Grocon’s exciting new CUB development, this building will provide the important Swanston street address to the northern end of the site, face two internal public spaces and hold congress with the existing Malt Store and the Queensbury Hotel, its immediate neighbours. Grocon have submitted a planning scheme amendment to the State Government and City of Melbourne which is expected to be incorporated by the end of the year when design work will commence on the commission. CUB Building 4, Commercial Tower corner of Swanston and Victoria Streets Architects: Denton Corker Marshall Project under development, commissioned 2007  Architects Notes: Denton Corker Marshall’s design for a signature commercial tower on the Carlton Brewery site, a prime inner-city Melbourne block, has been declared a winner in an architectural ideas competition run by Australian developer Grocon. Building 4 will be the largest building in Grocon’s masterplan of the Carlton Brewery site on the corner of Swanston and Victoria Streets. Envisaged as a tall flanking element, it will provide a new long distance marker for Melbourne’s civic spine which stretches from the Shrine of Remembrance through the heart of the city. At around 50 stories, the building will provide approximately 85,000 sq m of commercial office space with the potential for a hotel and/or apartments on the upper floors, subject to planning approval. The design features a simple language of ‘sticks’ to create a series of closely spaced slender towers that will generate startling views from the surrounding streets and public spaces. By eroding the tops of select sticks, a distinctive crown to the tower will be created providing a highly memorable silhouette to the northern city skyline. The design will undergo further development and will be submitted for planning approval at a later date. CUB Building 5 - Office Tower Architects: Ashton Raggatt McDougall Project under development, commissioned 2007 PRACTICE DIRECTOR, RMIT ARCHITECTURE ADJUNCT PROFESSOR, PROFESSIONAL DEGREE & RESEARCH DEGREE ALUMNUS Ian McDougall, RMIT Architecture Adjunct Professor, RMIT Bachelor of Architecture, RMIT Master of Architecture - Invited Program PRACTICE DIRECTOR, RMIT ARCHITECTURE ADJUNCT PROFESSOR & RESEARCH DEGREE ALUMNUS Howard Raggatt, RMIT Architecture Adjunct Professor, RMIT Master of Architecture - Invited Program  Project Notes This 20- storey office tower faces down the Swanston Street axis towards the Shrine of Remembrance in St Kilda Road. Architect Howard Raggatt said the building would be a new gateway to Melbourne, akin to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. The Shrine of Remembrance was a "profoundly symbolic element" of Melbourne's city centre, Mr Raggatt said, and it was crucial a significant building at the other end of the city faced the Shrine. "The old brewery on the CUB site told a very iconic Aussie story about Melbourne: a brewery at one end of the city, and the Anzac march and the death-and-glory material at the other," he said. "The brewery was a little bit ocker, but maybe there's now an opportunity for something more significant on this site." Project History ARM won an invited competition for a $300 million redevelopment of the former CUB site in 1995. This project included student housing, two towers, multimedia centre, residential apartments, commercial offices, a hotel, cinemas, retail and carparking. This scheme at the termination of the Shrine of Remembrance axis made a provocative urban and formal response by deflecting to create a spectacular anti-monumental void. This development did not go ahead, but the concept for this proposal informs the new scheme for the ARM designed office building in the current CUB masterplan. RMIT Student Housing, Pacific Central Development, CUB site proposal Architects: Ashton Raggatt McDougall Unbuilt Proposal, 1995  Articles: Five star designs picked for CUB site Australian Financial Review 26 July, 2007: "Grocon has named the winning quintet whose visions it will realise at the former brewery, wites Mathew Dunkley Grocon has unveiled its vision for Melbourne's former CUB Brewery site - which has sat vacant for more than 20 years - following the completion yesterday of a design competition. Grocon using a masterplan used by NH Architecture, invited architects to pitch designs for 5 sites at the property on the fringe of the CBD. Yesterday it named DCM, ARM, McBride Charles Ryan, Minifie Nixon & NH Architecture as winners of the contest. A judging panel including Grocon, a state government representative & RMIT University professor Leon van Schaik picked one design from each of the winning architects, leading to 5 very different buildings on the former RMIT University site. The development features taller buildings towards the city end, with a maximum proposed height of about 50 storeys, and then scale down towards the Carlton end of the site at Queensbury Street. Grocon chief executive Daniel Grollo said many recent major commercial developments were driven by the need to secure a particular tenant's commitment rather than focusing on a design outcome. "The way a lot of processes are run, design excellence is not an initial goal," he said. "We take it very seriously, the legacy we leave lasts a long time." Mr Grollo said the CUB site project would be a mixed-use development, but the company had not yet decided he proportion made up by the commercial, retail and residential components. "We're now looking forward to working with these five firms to develop this site," he said. "One thing to remember is these designs are not completely resolved ...we will respond to market requirements." At the company's nearby QV development, a building now occupied by BHP Billiton had originally been slated as a hotel but market conditions prompted a successful change of tack, he said. Mr Grollo said a planning application for the CUB site would be lodged with the state government and Melbourne City Council and each building would be subject to its own planning permit application. "We are now hoping for approval for the masterplan by the end of the year - more detailed planning will take place early next year and then we should start by the end of 2008," he said. Heritage features, such as the bluestone walls along Bouverie Street, a bluestone building and the old Malt Store would be retained and adpated as part of the redevelopment. The Malt Store would become the retail area opening to Swanston Street. The masterplan was similar to the scale to the concepts outlined when Grocon bought the site last October for $39 million from RMIT. Asked to nominate his favourite of the five designs, Mr Grollo said he could not split them - adding the easy bit was picking the design, and constructing cutting-edge buildings was more difficult. "I'm looking forward to getting involved in the process [of delivery], that's when it starts getting tougher," he said. The university will retain the site on the corner of Swanston & Victoria Streets for use as a design hub. That building is being designed by Sean Godsell Architects and Peddle Thorp & Walker. RMIT vice-chancellor Margaret Gardner said the area around the university formed an exciting link between the city and Carlton. "The devlopment of the Carlton Brewery...will redefine the city's edge, bringing exciting design and activity to its northern end," Professor Gardner said. NH Architecture principal Roger Nelson said that, aside from the buildings, the development would also provide a mixture of public spaces, including a pedestrian extension of Swanston Sterrt linking the plaza. "The precinct will celebrate diversity in architecture and forge active and vibrant connections between the main public spaces and the neighbourhood," he said. "And while there is diversity within the precinct, the development itself is designed to seamlessly meld into the city." Planning Minister Justin Madden's spokesman declined to comment." _________________________ New look and new role for old CUB site TheAge, Melbourne, July 26, 2007 Architects appointed for landmark project RMIT Openline Article, March 13, 2007 RMIT Design Hub to be city, industry landmark RMIT Openline Article, November 10, 2006 CUB site sale expands city’s footprint RMIT Openline Article, October 30, 2006 Grocon in last call for CUB site The Australian, October 19, 2006 | ||||||||
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