Anzac Station tram stop in St Kilda Road – open but not at all finished. I like it! Lovely curves, lots of wood (‘glulam’ beams maybe 1m deep?) in a diagonal grid, some skylights, some bright green. However – it’s so high that it won’t keep much weather out; the from city trams will stop at the far end anyway (where there’s an ordinary and more effective shelter); and the pavilions (air vents) in the medians either end are pretty ugly (but perhaps they’ll be growing vines?). Toorak Rd trams will be going back up Domain rd, which means to change trams you’ll have to get off at a new stop (I think) in Domain Rd, and use the underpass. The Neo Brutalist seats are good though.

12 December 2023:

Surprised to see this big structure appear in the triangular park on the west side of the Anzac Station tram stop – seems the design has changed from the one that first got approved – which had the 1924 Boer War Memorial moved to one side with just some stairs and lifts to one side (1st plan); now it’s a single wide stair with this big statement canopy thing, the lift separately to the left, and the memorial moved to the back down the slope. Big gap where it and some trees used to be (none of which were dug up to go back, but likely deemed too old to survive). Annoyed / concerned that these big infrastructure projects change as they go along, maybe not for the better. Perhaps here it would have been best to just clear the whole thing and start again ? Also pleasantly surprised to see trees in the tram stop itself, hopefully they’ll provide some shade ! Thanks @b.o.o.t.private for telling me they’re White Ash; they don’t seem to get very big, but grow fast, The huge new canopy doesn’t do much for shade, the platforms either side are actually quite narrow.

26 May 2025

Anzac Station gripes – the escalator /stair pavilions either side are disappointing, they’ve got huge zippy green beams holding them up, but the glass walling means you can’t see them until you’re inside, and the walls themselves feel like an afterthought, not reaching the roof, with a fair amount of structure above a (nice) granite base. And they’ve tried to make the roof look thin but just looks like it’s got pointed edges.

The pavilions at Barangaroo in Sydney are far more elegant (pic 5); they were designed by @fosterandpartners, ours are by @rshparchitects with @hassell_studio, perhaps we didn’t have the budget? The main timber roof has a similar problem, the legs obscured by the glass.

Meanwhile the lift pavilions look like they were designed by someone else trying a bit harder to do Foster style, all glass with black steel, annoying they’re different in effect, like the vents I posted yesterday, different again. I was also surprised by just how many things were scattered about, signs, fences, bins, poles for cameras as well as light poles, lots of cabinets (is ‘displan’ disaster plan?), in stainless steel, painted steel, or unpainted steel. There’s even a separate lift for staff. There’s lots of paving and steps with ledges, might be nice to sit on, but mainly it’s level access, which means the bike path just winds through, and there’s wide crossings at the tram tracks, I nearly stepped in front of one (but I admit I was lining up a photo). I think a lot of it has to do with public safety, and having as many amenity features as they could think of, but it’s ended up cluttered. It’s all quite a different layout to the plan from 2017, which had much more restrained design above ground. Be interesting to know how it all evolved to what was built.

The new Anzac Station/ tram stop in St Kilda Road includes these things scattered in the median either end – in the south, three of them are vents and the two biggest ones are air con things, and I don’t like them. I feel like maybe there was a different design team, the tram stop is all green steel and timber, but these are concrete and pre-rusted Cor-ten steel. Also they’re all different sizes and shapes, I assume matching the stuff under, but … they could’ve been the same height at least ? Or all rectangular? Or just in the steel ? Maybe they’ll grow creepers, but I don’t think so. There are trees planted on the medians, so eventually they’ll be less visible. There’s another version on the stop itself that has toilets for drivers and a shop, and it’s square with round ends, I just took some close ups of that bit, the steel boss might have the double M pattern for ‘metro’ that I’ve seen mentioned. Hard to spot.

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