18 March 2023:
My next idea for the yet-to-be-built city square site- as some of you suggested why not just something with trees and grass? I thought since it’s a bit like a park, why not go organic? Grass and flowers/shrubs in raised planters in amoeba shapes, with a nice fountain in the middle. They’re in sandstone, with seating around the edges, the paving all in bluestone. Various types of native trees in irregular rows along the back, as well as the front, instead of the second row of plane trees there before. I’ve kept the escalators and lifts where they’re going to be, but rounded all the forms, especially the stairs up to Collins Street. Instead of the flat glass roof over the escalators currently proposed, I’ve sketched something that would also have a glass roof, but a wobbly domed roof, part of a honeycomb structure perhaps in plywood that would let winter sun in but exclude summer sun, given our hotter future. I’ve pretty much copied #ElMetropolParasol in Seville fir that, but much smaller. I think given that the structure below is only meant to support paving that this all might be possible, but it might not. But auteky we can have something with a bit of interest, rather than the rectangular bore they’re proposing. Which has a lot of practical issues too if you ask me.
Storey of Melbourne 