2016 in review
Today we're heading off on our annual article publishing hiatus. We'll be back to normal article publishing operations in mid-January 2017.
2016 has been the most interesting year yet with our database ballooning to over 1,300 projects, the launch of Development Sites Melbourne, Oh.Yes.Melbourne's new home on Urban.com.au, our buyer-friendly Off The Plan landing page kicked off recently and you, our audience, continues to grow (15% since the start of the year).
Since January 1 and up until the time of writing, a touch over 500,000 unique user agents have visited sites in our network and we have served up 3,400,000 pages to them.
Melbourne loves its towers, if our the top five most viewed projects are any guide, in order: Collins Place, Queens Place, EQ Tower, Aurora Melbourne Central and Whitehorse Towers were clubhouse leaders this year.
The top five most read articles were:
- Monash Clayton continues to evolve with a new construction program
- St Kilda Junction subject to its biggest development yet
- Melbourne's low-rise high-density: all projects with 5 or 6 floors in one long list*
- Welcome to boom-town: Melbourne's low-rise high-density projects in one long list (all projects with 2, 3 or 4 floors)*
- Southbank's surge continues: another CBD model update
* the low-rise high-density articles were published in November 2015 and found a new life earlier this year.
Looking ahead, in 2017 we're looking forward to seeing the Fishermans Bend structure plans released & bedded down, a myriad of new completions - both tall and small - and perhaps, just perhaps, more momentum behind better market-affordable & social urban housing policy from Spring Street.
Also next year, expect to see new regular writers published in 2017 and stay tuned for new infrastructure changes in the first half of the year.
From all of us, thank you to the readers, the commenters, our advertisers/commercial partners and fans in general. Have a safe break and see you in the new year.
P.S. A book recommendation for your summer reading list / last minute Christmas gift to yourself: City Dreamers: The Urban Imagination in Australia by Graeme Davison.
City Dreamers restores Australian cities, and those who created them, to their rightful place in the national imagination. Building on a lifetime’s work, Graeme Davison views Australian history, from 1788 to the present day, through the eyes of city dreamers - such as Henry Lawson, Charles Bean and Hugh Stretton – and others who have helped make the cities we inhabit.
Davison looks at significant individuals or groups that he calls snobs, slummers, pessimists, exodists, suburbans and anti-suburbans – and argues that there’s a particular twist to the ways in which Australians think about cities. And the way we live in them.
This extraordinary book excavates the cultural history of the Australian city by focusing on ‘dreamers’, those who battle to make and re-make our cities. It reminds us that for most of us the city is home, and it is there that we find belonging.
Lead image credit: flickr.