WORDS PAUL MCGILLICK
PHOTOGRAPHY EARL CARTER, PETER BENNETTS

Not so long ago, following the slope of Melbourne’s Collins Street was literally a journey from the top end of town to the bottom, reaching a demoralising dead end at raffish Spencer Street and its grim country and interstate railway station.

How things have changed! Spencer Street Station has been brilliantly re-invented and opened up. Opposite, the glowing Age building and its landscaped forecourt seem to signal a new beginning – which it is, because Collins Street now surges on like the Yellow Brick Road in The Wizard of Oz towards the horizon, towards Emerald City (Docklands) where the new ANZ Centre stands as a beacon to the promised land.

Docklands is a work in progress and despite a degree of criticism it is undeniable that the Docklands project has transformed the city of Melbourne. It represents a kind of cultural renewal which can be seen as an extension of the rejuvenated laneways in the sense that it has added to the grain of an already richly textured CBD.

There is a new permeability to Melbourne. Spaces have been opened up and linked, while Docklands (with its mix of commercial, residential, hospitality and entertainment amenity) offers a whole new dimension to city living.

The new ANZ Centre is emblematic of this transformation. At the same time, it literally embodies the new permeability and transparency. In fact, it is a kind of town-within-a-town.

Read the full story on page 76 of Indesign magazine Issue #43, in stores now.