A massive European style public park will be built in the heart of Southbank, bringing greenery into one of Melbourne’s densest concrete pockets.
The 3,700 square metre park has been unveiled as a part of a skyscraper project, Melbourne Square, set to rise above a former car park on a city-fringe block.
It will include cascading water features, European-inspired piazzas and a “buzzing” outdoor terrace.
The public space will take up a fifth of the $2.8 billion development by Malaysian developer OSK Property, and will be one of the first aspects of the project to be built.
The space has been designed by landscape architects, Taylor Cullity Lethlean.
TCL managing director Perry Lethlean said the park would give Southbank a “new green heart”.
“The park is part of a network of gardens inspired by Melbourne’s Royal Botanic Gardens and qualities from other cities such as Paris, Berlin and Spain,” he said. “Generous promenades and plazas encourage the Italian tradition of promenading,” Mr Lethlean said.
The parkland, on a gently rising slope, with water-lined steps, lends itself to an amphitheatre setting.
“We believe this public realm will draw people from all over Southbank, and also provide an important linkage from the CBD through the arts precinct to the Botanic Gardens,” OSK Property executive chairman, Tan Sri Ong Leong Huat said.
