97 FRANKLIN STREET

The mixed use development at 97 Franklin Street, Melbourne – designed by HASSELL team for Holder East – will twist 62 stories into the sky, becoming an immediate landmark on the city's skyline.

The building will offer a mix of residential and serviced apartments, along with commercial and retail opportunities. It will be split into three elements – a podium, a low rise section and the high rise tower. Placed on top of each other, the three elements will be rotated to enhance the outlook of each one, maximising views and sunlight.

Under the proposal, the podium volume is pushed back from Franklin Street and houses the lobby, a restaurant, café, serviced apartments and residential facilities. The ground level forecourt offers an 'urban forest' to both residents and the general public, along with a new pedestrian connection through a proposed laneway on the western boundary of the site.

The mid-rise volume sits on top of the podium, perpendicular to the road. It is centered over the podium for daylight penetration from the north into the full depth of the site. This also achieves maximum setbacks between the surrounding developments and 97 Franklin Street.

The high-rise element houses residential apartments. It is rotated at 90 degrees to the low-rise, maximising its solar access. The orientation along the city grid brings morning and evening sunlight on to the southerly face. People living on the high-rise floors will enjoy large northern city vistas as well as southern views of Melbourne's central business district. They will share communal lounge and dining facilities which sit at the rotation point of the tower and extend into the terraces on top of the central volume.

The tower's façade is a gold grid, consisting of slender profiles that add a fine grain to the building's appearance.

Client: Holder East
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Scale: 52,000 sqm
Year: 2013
Imagery+Courtesy: HASSELL, Bloomimages and Doug & Wolf