Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
“The sky bridge connecting the two buildings is not simply decorative,” said Bill Sharples, founding principal of SHoP Architects.
“It maximizes views and sunlight for office, hotel, and residential occupants of the two buildings that, on the ground, meet public space and commercial requirements,” he said.
“The ground plane was always where the project started; the building’s form as a result of the program.”
Woods Bagot and SHoP Architects together with landscape architects Oculus won this competition to design Collins Arch in 2014, which was initiated by Cbus Property, calling for a landmark development for Collins Street—a major road in Melbourne with a mix of heritage buildings and skyscrapers.
“The project is born of two key, complementary ideas: an urban design rationale that links it to a larger public space network; and a concept for a mixed-use development that privileges the activation of the ground plane to create a landmark destination,” added Woods Bagot’s CEO, Nik Karalis.
Collins Arch has recently been awarded a 2022 International Architecture Awards Honorable Mention by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
The pair of towers for Collins Arch both rise 164 meters and comprise 34 stories, united at the top by the eight-story sky bridge that measures 14 meters in length.
Though their forms differ slightly, they each taper upwards as they extend to meet the sky bridge. This gives rise to a series of spacious terraces.
The tower on the west side of Collins Arch contains approximately 49,000 square metres of office space, while the east tower houses the hotel.
Their upper levels and connecting sky bridge contain the apartments, which range from one-bed flats to penthouses, alongside a pool, gym, and sky garden.
The sky bridge’s staggering form creates terraces and maximizes light.
The base of the tower contains a colonnade of public spaces developed by Oculus to develop open and green public spaces at the base of Collins Arch for workers, residents, and the public.
Alongside a colonnade of shops, bars, and restaurants, this includes a central courtyard, a covered amphitheater, and a 1,900-square-metre park.
Named Market Street Park, this is positioned adjacent to the site and is the first urban park to have been introduced to the city center since the 1980s.
Project: Collins Arch
Architects: Woods Bagot Pty Ltd. and SHoP Architects
Woods Bagot Design Team: Nik Karalis, Kate Frear, Rhonda Mitchell, Blair Parkinson, Matthew Pieterse, Ryvan Lim, Sarah Alessi, Rochelle Skurnik, Debra Longin, Grant Hopwood, Kristy Lawrence, Glen Crawford, Grace Cram, Clare Debney, Stuart Clark, Muhammad Reza, Brooke Galloway, Timothy Bradbury, Belinda Au, Rob Saggin, Stephen Rigg, and James Ooi
SHoP Design Team: William Sharples, Corie Sharples, Gregg Pasquarelli, Angelica Trevino Baccon, Lisa Schwert, Robert Page, Nick Scalco, Leah Nanpei, Matthew Decharme-Smith, Sameer Kumar, Andrea Vittadini, Amanda Masip, Edwin Jupp, Elliot Mistur, Matthew Kirkham, Anne Landau, John Cunningham, Paul Fredrickson, Minyoung Song, Alexis Nichol, Alex Woodhouse, Georgina Tiernan, Ryan Lovett, Jason Brook, and Mengyi Fan
Landscape Architects: Oculus
Planning Consultants: Urbis
Client: Cbus Property
Photographers: Peter Bennetts, Prue Ruscoe & Caitlin
