April 2026

Happened to go past the 1970s Housing Commission tower on the corner of Highett and Belgium Streets Richmond, which is coming down soon, with renters being relocated now. It’s a standalone tower, though attached to the huge four tower Richmond Estate on Elizabeth Street where the walk-ups are being demolished now.

It’s got a rather large fairly nice park on the west side, lots of lawn and trees, a few quite large and impressive. So I’m a bit worried how much of that might go, but no plans available. Seems likely that the tower would be replaced by a new one just as tall, and extra 10 storey blocks, with reduced open space. I would have thought though that is one place where it would be a better idea not to build on any of the park, and just improve the landscaping. Which then implies maybe just add some blocks south and west of the tower, and refurbish it.

I don’t know whether that’s more cost effective or not, but @___office architects have proposed adding new lifts and a new facade of verandah/wintergardens so every flat is larger and nicer, more thermally efficient, and preserving cross ventilation too.

I’ve also just realised the minor point that the towers aren’t all exactly the same – this one has flat facades with a fine grid, while others have projecting rooms and use different colours, or have longer wings – pic 12 is Flemington, 13 is Fitzroy. They all use the same pebble-dash precast panels, which I must say have proven themselves very durable, to not crack, crumble or discolour, in fact they don’t look 60 years old at all – I might have read somewhere they’re designed to self clean ? I mean not super attractive but they’re alright.

Pic 2 is dated 1975, taken from the back yard of a house to the east which I’m pretty sure is still there, so it’s a similar view to my pic 1.

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