13 November 2019
#deservetopreserve ? The #ReserveBankofAustralia Melbourne branch building was built in 1962-65 (as far as I can tell), and was designed by the Commonwealth Department of Works (with #ProfessorBrianLewis of Melb Uni archi school helping). It had an ‘arcade’ around the base, now filled in, and huge #SidneyNolan mural in the foyer, moved last year to the new ANU #kambriprecinct. Its clad in black granite on the #spandrels, and marble on the piers, now covered with aluminium, not sure if still there ? Bought last year by #DexusPropertyGroup, along with Melville House next door, they’re talking about demo for a much taller tower, but apparently it’s listed as Contributory in the Collins East #heritageprecinct ! Don’t know why, there’s better towers around – anyway, dear reader, what do you think ?
(the result on my Instagram page was surprisingly an even draw) 
This is Sydney’s, it’s so much better.
Ps it replaced the 1850s Occidental Hotel, which by 1958 was such a run down old pub that it was closed by the building inspector, and it was demolished the same year – the site served as a carpark for 2 years before being sold to the Reserve Bank)
This demolition photo often said to be of the Occidental is actually the adjacent terraces on Exhibition Street being demolished in 1962. The ones further along were already demolished for something else.
2 April 2020
A couple of weeks ago the good councillors of the @cityofmelbourne approved the replacement of the 1965 #ReserveBankofAustralia with….something pretty much the same ! Im not really a fan of the #batesmart minimalist aesthetic, but the councillors loved it ! One said it was ‘top notch’ and ‘exceptional’, another ‘a great addition to the #ParisEnd’, but I can’t see it. I mean given the context it should have at least had a podium, with the tower part setback, instead of being sheer straight up from the street (again). Also curious that it’s worthwhile to demolish it for something not that much bigger !
23 November 2021
This tower replacing the Reserve Bank on Collins Street (and looking much the same!) just got taller – much taller ! surprise surprise.
The interesting thing is they can go taller because they’ve somehow added the area of the Melbourne Club and it’s garden and a building the club owns own facing little collins to the site, so they get a higher floor area ratio – which means neither will be able to go up in future (not that the melb club ever would). Buying adjacent buildings or even non-adjacent heritage places is what they do in new york to go taller, but they havnt bought the melb club ? I guess you can buy ‘air rights’ now.
9 December 2021:
Which one is better? I’m giving you the best one first, the last one is the actual approved one – the base of a giant tower to replace the very similar styled 1960s Reserve Bank on the corner of Collins and Exhibition. Because it’s a corner they don’t have to do the five meter setback above the podium like they should, so they’re just putting some masonry bits at the base same height as Melville house next door, and keeping the 5m gap between already there, but I think it just looks like it’s surrounded by the tower. I wanted to see if it was possible to create a visual break between the podium and the tower, to keep your eye from going upwards, so I started sketching. Even just putting in an inset floor with a Veranda, seems to do the trick. If you do that then the gap seems unnecessary, so options one and two do away with it. Last two images are the full tower and then my version, plus what was there before. So tell me what you think – options 1, 2 or 3 ? Comments like ‘we don’t need more towers’ will be disregarded as unrealistic ! But you can say it’s terrible no matter what you do. But really, it’s the Paris End of Collins Street, they could have tried harder !
Storey of Melbourne 