City corner over the top

26 June 2026

Well this is super depressing – Lendlease actually wants to go to nearly twice the MANDATORY 40m height limit for their boring office project around Young & Jacksons, and it’s entirely up to the Minister Sonya Kilkenny to say yes or no, without any public process.

I thought the 40m (plus plant levels) design was awful enough, both boring and dominating in this extremely important gateway site. A version twice as high will make the pub look titchy, stick up behind the dome of Flinders Street looking from the south, distract from the dominance of the Cathedral, and stick up aggressively in the low streetscape of Flinders Street. It will also cast a wide shadow most of the year right across the intersection and the Fed Sq corner in the late afternoon, especially in winter. And it’s just offices, plenty of other places to put them.

A few months ago Lendlease put it on hold, not enough profit ? This would set an awful precedent – the 40m height limit in the retail core has been in place since 1982, that’s 44 years, and has ensured a low scale and feel and sunlight to the busy shopping streets. It was a re-imposition of the whole CBD limit of 40m (1916-1950s), and the retail area had relatively few mid century towers. It has a huge concentration of smaller historic buildings, lanes and arcades, and the height limit discouraged site amalgamations for towers, so it also had the effect of preserving most of those buildings intact. Now many are apartments or boutique hotels or low rent spaces above the ground level. All of that would be under threat if this gets a permit, even if it’s said to be a one-off. I guess I’ll be emailing the Minister! Report in today’s Age. It’s telling that there’s only one image from an elevated position, which doesn’t show how it would look from the street, or from a distance.

I’ve done a terrible outline and pic 4 is the 40m proposal. Pic 6 is my own preferred version, one that draws from traditional front vs side walls for pre 1940 buildings in the cbd, and the tradition of neon signs on that corner.

159 comments, a surprising number in favour (dome using similar wording…)

6 July

The City of Melbourne is going to vote tomorrow on the proposed increase in height of the development around Young & Jackson’s – and the recommendation is no. You can make a written submission, but before 10am tomorrow (!). Just google ‘future melbourne committee 07 July 2026’ and you’ll see what to do – and you can look at the plans too.

Which are only plans, theres no 3d views, so I’ve done some.

All Council can do however is provide advice, since Lendlease are asking to be ‘state significant’, so there’s no open process, and very short timelines.

A permit would simply trounce the long established 40m height limit in the retail core of the CBD. It goes from here up to Lonsdale and across to Russell, and has been in place since 1982 – and has successfully ensured sunlight to the pedestrian heavy streets, and protected the fine grain of heritage buildings lanes and walkways to boot. This is the one part of the CBD where low height is the policy, while the most of the rest has no height limits. Not to mention it’s just an office block. I’m afraid though that Lendlease have some deal about getting value out of the site, having built the metro tunnel ….

My sketches arnt perfect but give you an idea. I hadn’t realised how much it would stick up above the dome of Flinders Street. And it’s almost as tall as the spires of St Paul’s. And it would also start casting a shadow over Fed Sq after 3pm for 6 months /year.