Ivanhoe Urban Architecture
Political spin justifies anything
Recently in The Age (19th July 2024) several local politicians and a few ‘experts’ spoke of the coming of apartments towers to the central areas of Ivanhoe with the emphasis on those sites nearer the railway station.
Mention was made of several already in place. One was the Landmark, a four /five storey apartment block just across from the railway station. While the lowerside is five storey, the upper level (up the side street) comes down to four storey, and so it does not dominate the view from above.
The City of Banyule Mayor’s Tom Melican boasts that they have planning rules in place to allow for appropriate levels of apartments so that they do not dominate the main street. I beg to differ.
Another building mentioned in the same Age article, is the Evergreen apartments that are near the railway and also stretch up the street to be a building back from the main street.
By contrast with the Landmark building, the Evergreen maintains its storey height as it climbs the hill towards the main street. It is seven storeys all the way up the hill resulting in the section one building back from the shops looking much higher than those further down towards the railway station.
It dominates the skyline and can be seen from almost any direction from within Ivanhoe. Worse still, being on a hill top, those higher storeys dominate the skyline from viewpoints several kilometres away. And it is not beautiful to look at.
Above and below: Views from the high street.
Below: Another view from a side street – the street going down to the station. This view makes clear how the building climbs the hill.
Above: From the west.
Below: View from the railway station platform. The trees do disguise it.
My preferred building height for apartments near centres remains at 4 storeys maximum – with those on high streets being more like two or three depending on their location and how they fit in with the neighbourhood.
This Evergreen building is not the most attractive. I do wonder what joke was being had when a very brown building was named Evergreen.
How the council approved its dominance on this central site does signal that this council does not understand urban aesthetics and how to encourage good architecture – and good street design solutions.
yes, we need more housing and more apartments, but this should not be used as the model for future apartment blocks.