Where does this idea that Fitzroy / Yarra is somehow immune to apartment developments come from? Have you seen the sheer volume of applications that have been coming before council over the past 12 months? Have you seen how huge some of these developments are, 3000? Almost everything gets approved, and almost everything gets built. Fitzroy (and Yarra more generally) is an absolute development hot spot right now, with some of the largest proposals in the inner city being built in what is already the densest inner city neighbourhood in Melbourne.

@ Bilby

Perhaps the idea that Fitzroy isn't being developed is a sign that it's being developed well! You're right.. there's lots going on.. but it's mainly pretty good stuff. It's quite well dispersed, the scale is appropriate, and the designs are way better than the crap going up elsewhere.

If someone walks through Fitzroy and asks where all the apartment development is, then that's brilliant... and long may it continue. That Piedemont design sticks out precisely because it's the sort of stuff that Brunswick has been flooded with, but Fitzroy has avoided. There's a particularly awful example of it on Smith Street.. but even that's on the Collingwood side of the road. That sort of design should be rejected everywhere.

Excellent points.
I'm saying that Brunswick seems to have none of the deserved attention to scale, quality and thoughtfulness that Fitzroy seems to be getting.
Brunswick has a few winning developments here and there but for the most part it's been a free for all.
I mentioned before, the intersection at Brunswick Rd and Lygon. It'll have a development on each corner. Would that shit fly in Fitzroy? I don't think so.

No, it wouldn't fly in Fitzroy. But then, in many ways that's the legacy of years of damage to the heritage streetscapes of Brunswick. This, combined with very mixed quality low and mid-rise infill buildings and little effort on the part of council to plant trees has led to poor outcomes (I know, because I lived there for the best part of a decade). This seems to give the impression to developers that anything goes and that the quality of design and build matters less than in other (more prestigious) locales. It's wrong, and a somewhat self-fulfilling prophecy, but it seems to be the way that developers view the situation.

The urban context in Brunswick is different to Fitzroy. The urban environment at the corner of Brunswick Road and Lygon Street was pretty bloody ordinary ten years ago and was a perfect location for increased residential density.

True, but that doesn't excuse all the ugliness built there since. It's where good design goes to die.

Built well, it could've been awesome. But what we are getting there is equally ordinary with what was there years ago.
The sites they are building on are quite large so there would been opportunities abound. However, we got status quo.

Go up a little further on Sydney Road and Lygon and you'll see the definition of what I'm talking about. The outcomes presented are like a graveyard of poor design and bad ideas.

Imagine if those responsible put the same thought into Brunswick as they did Fitzroy.

Another street that comes to mind is Nicholson, a lot of developments there seem to be done on the cheap. A lot of mismatch white buildings that say nothing about the area.

Fwiw, I live in Brunswick and go past many of these developments every day.

166 Gertrude

If the Gertrude Street facade had any worth it would have turned out great

Can you elaborate, Mark? There are some pretty evident build and design quality issues with this development - e.g. the expressed joints in the pre-cast, and the wonky line of the steel street awnings (much more obvious in person when standing on the opposite side of the street).

That Gertrude frontage is awful

Yeah what 3000 said.

The crown as such is well angled and executed - perf mesh looks great. Gerturude Street elevation looks super cheap, I think the inactive aspects of the facade could have been jazzed up with a better clad/mesh finish.

622-636 Nicholson Street

What's there now incorporates greenery better than this.

Private hospital plans to demolish heritage-listed buildings

St Vincent’s Private hospital is seeking to partially demolish two heritage-listed Fitzroy buildings, one associated with the eight-hour day movement and the other with Saint Mary McKillop, to make way for an 11-storey hospital extension.
The hospital’s plans, labelled “imperialist” by local opponents, were approved by Yarra Council with strict conditions around the heritage buildings.
St Vincent’s Private subsequently appealed the decision at Victoria’s planning tribunal.
A justification for the development submitted by St Vincent’s says the hospital is facing “bed block” during the week, forcing it to divert non-elective or urgent private patients to other hospitals.
The new hospital wing will replace part of the existing hospital and includes demolishing a portion of the Eastern Hill Hotel, razing the historic Easthill House and removing the rear of the two-storey Italianate mansion, Dodgshun House.
The gold-rush era former Eastern Hill Hotel, on the corner of Brunswick Street and Victoria Parade, is listed on Victoria’s heritage register and was once used by trade unionists as the headquarters for the eight-hour day movement.
Dodgshun House, also on the register, is the Brunswick Street location of Marino Cottage where Saint Mary McKillop was born in 1842.
Easthill House on Victoria Parade is considered individually significant from a heritage perspective.
The entire site of the hospital also falls under a heritage overlay.

https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/private-hospital-plans-to-d...

93-97 webb street fitzroy

Spanish Club revamp comes to market

Developer Tim Gurner’s Spanish Club development in Melbourne’s inner-city Fitzroy has finally hit the market, more than two years after winning the tender to redevelop the Johnston Street site.
It has taken two VCAT cases and a Supreme Court win to get to the launch of the 32-apartment development which Mr Gurner describes as “a passion project.”
“We were so far into it that we couldn’t leave it. We need to make our money back but we won’t make any money from it,” Mr Gurner said.
Part of that is down to Mr Gurner’s deal with the Spanish Club, looking after their bank debt, building them a new 500 square metre restaurant on the ground floor. The original seven-level project was nixed by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal because of a neighbouring car body work building’s exhaust fan. His company, Gurner, took that case to the Supreme Court and VCAT finally approved the development late last year.
“It’s hard to get planning approval through in two years,” he said. “People used to say don’t go to Sydney because it takes two years to get a project up but it takes 18-24 months now in Melbourne. That never used to be the case.”

https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/spanish-club-revamp-comes-t...

81-89 Queens Parade by Cox Architecture. 8L serviced apartments + offices

Fitzroy towers are 'cavalier,' Historical Society says

Two contentious planning decisions will allow a large university and private hospital to build high-rise towers in one of Melbourne’s oldest and hippest suburbs, Fitzroy.
Critics of the decision have labelled it “cavalier” and likely to “destroy” the precinct’s low-rise heritage.
The inner-city planning stoush will fuel a backlash against over-development in Planning Minister Richard Wynne’s key marginal state seat at a time when he faces a looming election and the government is reeling from the recent loss of the plum Labor-leaning seat of Northcote to the Greens.
An 11-storey expansion of St Vincent’s Private Hospital is set to go ahead on Victoria Parade after Victoria’s planning tribunal amended restrictive conditions imposed on the tower by Yarra Council, designed to protect surrounding historic buildings.
And nearby, the Australian Catholic University (ACU) has won approval to build five storeys on top of the heritage-listed former Commonwealth Note and Stamp Printing building, also on Victoria Parade, and is seeking approval for another 20-level tower beside it.
The ACU’s high-rise, if approved, will abut rows of double storey Victorian homes and be the same height as the landmark Atherton Gardens housing commission flats nearby.
In unusually strong criticism, the Royal Historical Society of Victoria said the suburb’s heritage values were being “compromised.”
“The RHSV is deeply concerned at the impact St Vincent’s proposal would have on the precinct and alarmed at the hospital’s cavalier attitude to the significant heritage value of the area in which it is located,” its heritage committee chair, Emeritus Professor Charles Sowerwine, said.

https://www.theage.com.au/business/companies/fitzroy-towers-are-cavalier...

Estilo

Lyric

Estilo is approximately 0% as good as the juice van it replaced.

Scale/location are fine, but the design is standard-ugly, and with quality to match. More of those lovely 'brick' panels with joins that are about as convincing as a Keanu Reeves saying anything other than 'dude'. Zero attempt has been made to deliver a building that compliments it's neighborhood.Thank god we don't get too much of this in Fitzroy.

Tim Gurner to rethink North Fitzroy apartment designs

A planning tribunal has ruled that rich-list developer Tim Gurner must increase the size of some living rooms and improve irregular-shaped bedrooms as conditions of approving his scaled-back Melbourne apartment project.

Just over half as many units as originally planned are set to be built in the controversial North Fitzroy project after a group of local residents and Yarra City Council opposed the original idea for a 16-storey tower with 470 dwellings.

Mr Gurner had been set to lodge a proposal for a shorter 12-storey tower when Victorian Planning Minister and local member for Richmond, Richard Wynne, intervened to impose a height control of 10 storeys on the Queens Parade site.

The developer’s latest proposal for 263 dwellings — of which 16 are townhouses and the rest apartments — has won the backing of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

The amount of net sellable area fell only 9.8 per cent between the 12-storey and 10-storey designs as the developer shifted to larger apartments and fewer one-bedroom units after the Melbourne residential market moved towards owner-occupier demand.

The planning tribunal warned that the new design still included at least 19 bedrooms without minimum dimensions of 3m by 3m and some “odd-shaped bedrooms” even after the developer had been encouraged to change the triangular spaces in an earlier version.

The ruling said each bedroom must be 3m by 3m, or a minimum area of 9sq m, provided one side of a rectangle that fits in the bedroom is no less than 2.8m.

Some of the townhouses have been redesigned with larger living areas after the tribunal earlier said these spaces were “insufficient”, while the building will have more communal open space.

Before construction starts, the land must be checked for any contamination on or near the site.

A 1930s facade will have to be restored to its original condition based on the best available evidence.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/property/tim-gurner-to-rethink...

>>> Crazy to limit the Alexandra Pde site to 10 levels - the result of what the minister did over the road

Contaminated dirt to be dug up ahead of Fitzroy gasworks development

Excavation of one of the inner north's most contaminated sites will begin next year, paving the way for a sprawling apartment development rising to 10 storeys.

In preparation for the clean-up and sale of the North Fitzroy Gasworks site, the state government will conduct tests on the scale of pollution lurking beneath the valuable pocket of land.

The publicly-owned site is to be sold by 2021.

Located in one of Melbourne's most sought-after suburbs, the 3.9-hectare site sits between three major roads: Smith Street, and Queens and Alexandra parades.

The three large gasometers that were on the site were pulled down in the 1970s, and it has sat mostly dormant since.

The government wants the property rezoned so 1100 new apartments can be built as well as a major basketball centre, a new high school and a park.

Planning Minister Richard Wynne will set mandatory height limits of 10 storeys. for the site; previously up to 14 levels was considered.

Up to 20 per cent of the apartment complex will also be allocated to "affordable, social and shared equity housing", the state government has pledged.

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/contaminated-dirt-to-be-dug-...

Not sure if this approval has been reported, but here's a recent UrbanDeveloper article.

Gurner's Scaled-Back North Fitzroy Project Wins Permit

Melbourne inner-city developer Tim Gurner has had his latest proposal in North Fitzroy approved by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, subject to certain conditions.
Original plans for the Queens Parade site saw twin 16-storey apartment buildings, which were heavily opposed by a group of local residents and the Yarra City Council.
The developer had been set to lodge a proposal for a shorter 12-storey tower when Victorian Planning Minister and local member for Richmond, Richard Wynne imposed interim height controls of 10-storeys.
The now scaled-back proposal has been downsized from 470 dwellings to 263, spread across 16 townhouses and apartment buildings.
The planning tribunal ruled that townhouses would need to be redesigned with larger living areas after labelling the spaces as “insufficient”.
Related: Gurner, Alceon and Barana Group Partner up to Develop St Kilda Novotel Site

The original 16-storey proposal for 26-56 Queens Parade.
Image: Koichi Takada Architects

The developer has been told to increase the size of living rooms within apartments and ensure a minimum bedroom area of 9 square metres.
“For the Minister to claim that a project is of state significance to warrant intervention and waste so much time and money for an outcome that represents just a 9 per cent reduction in massing is ludicrous,” Gurner founder Tim Gurner said.
"We are now just happy to be able to get on with the task of creating an amazing precinct that Melbourne can be proud of as we work towards delivering buildings that foster community integration and enhance the area’s character and charm.”
Related: Gurner Reveals Plans for Smith Street Apartment Project

Gurner's new 10-level plan for 26-56 Queens Parade, North Fitzroy. The design, by Cox Architecture, is the third design for the site.
Image: Cox Architecture

Gurner also received approval for his controversial $350 million mixed-use Wellington Street development earlier this year, after a lengthy mediation and redesign process.
The developer is also seeking legal advice about possible actions against the planning minister, Richard Wynne.
Construction on Gurner's North Fitzroy is expected to commence in 2019.
https://theurbandeveloper.com/articles/gurner-north-fitzroy

Two posts above Redden

Estilo

Lyric