What makes Melbourne special is its unique CBD. One building could bring it all undone

July 22, 2026 — 5:00am

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The recent debate over the proposed Lendlease office tower above the new Town Hall Metro Station opposite Flinders Street Station has focused on the building, its overshadowing, wind impacts and the proposal to almost double the existing 40-metre height limit to 76 metres.

As a former Melbourne City architect and designer of Melbourne’s 1985 Strategy Plan that led to the reactivation of the CBD and its laneways, I recognise these are legitimate concerns. But they are not the central issue. The real question is whether Melbourne is prepared to dismantle a planning principle that has helped make it one of the world’s most admired cities.

The 40-metre height controls in the retail core of the Hoddle Grid are not a historical accident. They are one of the reasons Melbourne possesses a character unlike almost any other city. That character emerged from 19th-century land speculation. Melbourne’s unusually large city blocks were progressively subdivided to increase their commercial value. Those subdivisions required service access and connections through the blocks, creating the network of lanes and arcades that now make up our pedestrian network and have become one of the city’s defining characteristics.

But the lanes’ role as connectors is only part of the story. What makes central Melbourne unique is the fine-grained pattern of ownership and development that those subdivisions created. Hundreds of small buildings, narrow frontages and independent tenancies have supported an extraordinary diversity of businesses,........

© The Age