University Square
University Square is a 1.5 hectare park on the south side of Grattan Street, Carlton, containing an underground car park, a plaza and a park which is largely grass and elm trees. The square is under-utilised given its location, size and adjacent activities.
The University of Melbourne commissioned this work to:
The park has the potential to extend to the front fences of the properties in Barry, Leicester and Pelham Streets; this would more than double the park’s size. Because the park has largely senescent trees, lacks many heritage elements and lacks established user groups, the site is largely a blank canvas. It has great potential for total redevelopment to create a vibrant well-loved and very well used public space.
Our role during this project was to recommend how the space can be best used and the attributes it would need to take it from being a space into a place. We suggested twenty spatial strategies.
The City of Melbourne has recently released a draft master plan for redevelopment of the square, with implementation expected in 2017. This master plan has adopted most of the strategies we proposed, including expanding the park into the surrounding streets.
The University of Melbourne commissioned this work to:
- help establish a University-wide view on desirable improvements to the site
- assist the park’s owner (the City of Melbourne) to understand how the square can best be redeveloped to serve its potential users, especially the University, and
- understand how the University might assist in advancing the square’s redevelopment.
The park has the potential to extend to the front fences of the properties in Barry, Leicester and Pelham Streets; this would more than double the park’s size. Because the park has largely senescent trees, lacks many heritage elements and lacks established user groups, the site is largely a blank canvas. It has great potential for total redevelopment to create a vibrant well-loved and very well used public space.
Our role during this project was to recommend how the space can be best used and the attributes it would need to take it from being a space into a place. We suggested twenty spatial strategies.
The City of Melbourne has recently released a draft master plan for redevelopment of the square, with implementation expected in 2017. This master plan has adopted most of the strategies we proposed, including expanding the park into the surrounding streets.
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