Original post 8 Feb 2021:
This is one that honestly I can’t even bear to look at – which VCAT thought was fine ! And unfortunately going ahead whereas many other much more acceptable ones arnt. It’s a 20 storey office tower plonked over the retained and restored upper facades of the 1925 Metropolitan Hotel in William Street. It wasn’t #heritagelisted when the tower was first proposed in 2018, but now it is proposed to be (too late!) so this is the compromise result. I told Council it should be have protected back in 2011 when all three little old buildings around it were proposed individually, but they ‘weren’t looking at precincts’ dammit! An excellent lane with a very old warehouse down the back too. It’s just painful.
The developer isColin DeLutis, who does pubs, office refurbs and small shopping centres, and the architects are @wmkarchitecture, who say that “WMK has created an architectural response that not only reflects the modernization of a city but has revived and redefined the pub experience to give it life and viability for the next 100 years.”. Images : WMK, me 2011, c1972, @library_vic.
Storey of Melbourne 