Apple store in Federation Square will open area and embrace Yarra river
THE plan to put an Apple store in Federation Square is still getting criticism but, done properly, it will make the space more rounded, writes Shaun Carney.
Opinion
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FOR a city that’s taken itself very seriously for pretty much all of its life, Melbourne spent a long time botching its attempts to create a public gathering space in its CBD.
All great cities are supposed to have a big civic plaza but the good burghers of Melbourne could never seem to find a way to create one.
That was until the 1960s — 130 years after John Batman took his boat up the Yarra — when the city council set out to create the City Square.
APPLE STORE FOR FEDERATION SQUARE
The thing took forever to be designed and built, was rarely uncontroversial and never really worked. Eventually half of it was sold off to create a hotel and the remainder is now a construction site for the Melbourne Metro rail tunnel project.
Few lament its demise.
Federation Square, which in the Melbourne tradition opened in 2002, a full year after the centenary of Federation, has been a greater success. Although its curious angles, strange topography and jagged textures bring to mind the observation attributed to Barry Humphries regarding the Arts Centre spire — “Won’t it be wonderful when it’s finished!” — Federation Square works.
It’s where Melburnians gather to celebrate big moments in politics and sport. It’s also a place that big numbers of people attend just for the heck of it. So hooray for Melbourne. It only took 170 years, but we finally managed to get a functioning public square.
But Federation Square is not all it could be. One of the most positive developments in Melbourne during the past 30 years has been its embrace of the Yarra. Up until the 1980s, the city had its back turned to the river but, with the establishment of the Southbank precinct by the Cain government, that started to change and we’re all the better for it.
What I’ve never understood about Federation Square is why it’s so closed off from the Yarra.
When the Kennett government, to its great credit, decided to demolish the ugly brown brick 1960s Gas and Fuel towers and the Princes Gate plaza in order to create Federation Square, part of the thinking was that it would continue the trend of embracing the river.
Unfortunately, as a sort of afterthought, the Fed Square designers added the three-storey and quaintly named Yarra Building to its southern edge, which — you guessed it — created a barrier to the river.
Right now, the Princes Walk pathway that runs along the Yarra from Princes Bridge is full of visitors on their way to the Australian Open.
Quite a few of them won’t know that they’re walking along what was until the 1990s busy Batman Avenue, which hosted the Wattle Park tram.
When they look at Federation Square, they just see the big rear wall of the Yarra Building.
Count me in on the proposal to demolish the Yarra Building and replace it with an Apple concept store. As the designer of Federation Square Donald Bates has said, the Yarra Building is an orphan — the least-successful building in the precinct.
THE Apple building will be only two storeys, will be glass-walled and will boost the open space in the square. It will also afford new forms of landscaping that will hopefully better incorporate Princes Walk and the river.
The Yarra Building’s chief tenant, the Koorie Heritage Trust, will move to a bigger space, a situation with which it seems happy.
Naturally and predictably, the Apple store proposal has plenty of opponents. To them, this is the commercialisation of a public asset. Worse, it involves an American corporate giant that supposedly doesn’t pay its fair share of tax and runs a closed system on its software and hardware. The Andrews Government had been negotiating this arrangement in secret for a year and announced it at the start of the silly season, so there must be much to hide. The design is an aesthetic assault on Federation Square. And so on.
The government did not help itself. The Tourism and Major Events Minister John Eren’s announcement was a cut-and-keep piece of spin.
The change would not cost taxpayers a cent, he said — all Apple wanted was access to the “very important space”.
Our Christmases have come all at once. There are only five of these stores around the world. The only one outside of the US, of course, is in Milan, and we will be the only store in the Southern Hemisphere. There’s a whiff of the cargo cult and “putting Melbourne on the map” in there, for sure. But the truth is that Fed Square cannot rely on government contributions to keep going. It’s a loss-maker and the money Apple will fork out is going to fix that.
The argument against commercial use of the space does not stand up. The original idea for the Yarra Building was for it to house a very big book store — remember them? Currently, it houses two food and beverage businesses. Like it or not, the precinct was designed to include the arts, social activities and commerce. It was meant to be dynamic, not to be treated like some sacred space.
I’m not sure I’m happy about the way the digital revolution is playing out, but it’s not too hard to make the case that Apple’s transformative role in the lives of so many of us represents an important part of 21st century Australia.
In the age of disruption, even our civic spaces aren’t immune.
Shaun Carney is a Herald Sun columnist
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