If communities don’t understand and support local heritage protections, perhaps that’s a reflection on how the system works and not just evidence of a need for public education.
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Latest Posts
This symbol of the past must also reflect our present and future
The Royal Exhibition Building could be a key historic landmark of post-pandemic Melbourne.
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Eastern Freeway: A Heritage Commentary
With its latest determination on Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway, it would seem that the Heritage Council is sending a message to the Victorian heritage sector: “evidence needed”.
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Award for Public Space and Cultural Heritage Advocacy At Fed Square
In early 2018, I co-founded Citizens for Melbourne and we launched the ‘Our City, Our Square – for Fed Square, not Apple Square’ campaign. Our team was awarded The Bates Smart Award for Architecture in Media (Advocacy Award), Victorian Architecture Awards, Australian Institute of Architects, 2020.
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Urban History summer seminar series – ‘Questioning the Consensus? Urban Conservation in 1990s Sydney and Melbourne’
James Lesh will be speaking at a virtual seminar this Friday on his research.
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Why heritage protection is about how people use places, not just their architecture and history
The roar of the crowd at the stadium. Jostling to see the New Year fireworks in the public square. Captivated by the band at the pub. Meeting mates outside the train station. These experiences conjure sites of importance for each of us.
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One of Melbourne’s worst planning mistakes at risk of being repeated
A development proposal for the Jolimont railyards has the potential to be one of the biggest planning mistakes in Melbourne in a generation.
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Our cities owe much of their surviving heritage to Jack Mundey
Jack Mundey, who has died at the age of 90, was a pioneer of the Australian heritage movement. As well as contributing to labor and environmental politics, Mundey reconceived of the ways that Australians related to their cities and heritage places.
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Road to nowhere? (on the Eastern Freeway heritage listing)
Melbourne’s Eastern Freeway is likely to be state heritage listed next year. Heritage Victoria has identified it as aesthetically and historically important. But should freeways be managed within the heritage system? Or is a freeway the kind of 20th century relic which we should be prepared to let go of?
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How can a place be heritage-listed after 17 years? What it means for Melbourne’s Fed Square
Federation Square in Melbourne has been listed on the Victorian state heritage register just 17 years after its completion. The push for heritage status was provoked by the now-abandoned Apple store proposal for the city centre site. Heritage considerations will now guide this important public space, widely known as Fed Square, as it evolves now and over future generations.
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