What has become of Bourke Street Mall?

Reflections on the recent Bourke Street Mall redevelopment.

Bourke Street Mall, in the very heart of the City of Melbourne has just experienced its third incarnation. It seems redevelopment of the Mall is becoming a bit of a tradition!

The Bourke Street Mall first opened in 1983, being developed from a design by Yuncken Freeman Architects. The original design featured red clay bricks laid in sweeping circular patterns across the width of the street. Dominating the skyline were arched red poles that supported the street lighting and tram cables. Big seats, rubbish bins and planter boxes were also clad in red bricks to match, and trees were planted to fill parts of the mall.

Then in 1992, Council gutted the original mall in a $2.7 million redevelopment, designed by Urban Initiatives. The red bricks were ripped up and replaced with dark and light grey paving stones, reminiscent of the bluestone commonly seen in other parts of the city. New, powder-coated Federation green street furniture was installed and the fancy light poles replaced in favour of more conservative street lighting.

Bourke Street Mall in 2004In 2003, Council decided to initiate another redevelopment, this one costing $5.75 million (the initial estimation was $15 million, before plans were scaled back). The proposal included the total removal of all trees, installation of suspended street lighting, relocation of tram stops and “cosmic-themed” sparkly concrete between the tram lines (shown in blue in the Proposal images).

Proposal for the new Bourke Street MallA few weeks ago, the scaffolding and temporary fencing in the mall was removed to reveal the new look of the Mall sans blue “cosmic-themed” concrete.

The new Bourke Street Mall (decorated for Christmas)The workmanship is poor in much of the new Mall. Concrete has been slopped over paving stones, seats don’t align with each other, and the general drabness from so much grey concrete is depressing. Rather than highlight the heritage buildings in the precinct, the removal of trees has highlighted all the unsympathetic alterations these shops have suffered at street level, as well as remove the refreshing shade that weary shoppers used to be able to experience. Trees will be planted but they will only be small potted specimens.The new Bourke Street Mall now comes as a real blight on the city landscape. If one recalls what the Bourke Street Mall used to be, this really is quite a disappointment.

References:

Masterson, A. (1992) Council Considers $2.7m Revamp Of Bourke St Mall, Sunday Age, 26 April, p.2
Millar, R. & Beaumont, L. (2003) New look Bourke Street is off the drawing board. The Age, 2 June.
Boulton, M. (2004) $10m facelift plan for Bourke Street Mall. The Age, 3 May.

Image credits:

1. a. National Archives of Australia Image No. A6135 K15/2/90/71; b.Sven-Erik Svensson; c. The Age. 2. wunderground.com. 3. The Age. 4. Adam Dimech

Comments

One response to “What has become of Bourke Street Mall?”

On 14 February 2019, Nathan Alexander wrote:

You state above that Urban Initiatives designed the early 90’s version. That company did some background work, but the design was by the City of Melbourne, and more specifically, me. I was part of the City’s Urban Design Branch at the time.

Please correct the article.

Regards

Nathan Alexander

What has become of Bourke Street Mall?

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