Heritage wonder or high-rise hell? Forces unite to save Melbourne’s public housing towers from oblivion

Victorian Labor’s plan to raze Melbourne’s 44 public housing towers faces unexpected resistance from a party elder and an architectural icon as a bid to have one site heritage listed threatens to disrupt the state government’s scheme to tackle the housing crisis.

The Age can reveal Heritage Victoria has received a nomination to heritage list the 31-level Park Towers in South Melbourne, which was praised internationally as the “highest precast load bearing wall building of its kind in the world” when it opened in 1969.

Park Towers in South Melbourne.Credit: Penny Stephens

Heritage Victoria has confirmed the nomination, but would not say who had lodged it.

If successful, it would be the first state heritage registration of high-rise public housing in Victoria – and a potential hiccup for the Allan government’s redevelopment plan announced by former premier Daniel Andrews as part of Labor’s landmark housing statement in September.

The state government could head off heritage listing by “calling in” the nomination or could seek to have any listing lifted or altered – but either move would be seen as controversial.

Long seen as a blot on Melbourne’s landscape and skyline, the towers are being more sympathetically viewed by some amid a housing crisis, shifting attitudes to high-density living and growing recognition of their importance to the city’s social and political history and fabric.

97-year-old architect Peter McIntyre at the Carlton public housing flats he helped design in the 1960s.Credit: Joe Armao

Architects are also increasingly interested in the environmental benefits of re-use – rather than removal – of buildings where possible.

Among those unhappy about the demolition plan is revered modernist architect Peter McIntyre – now 97 – who in the 1960s helped design the red brick Housing Commission flats on the corner of Nicholson and Elgin streets in Carlton.

Residents have already been moved out of the Carlton towers and the government plans to award a contract this year to demolish them, along with three towers in North Melbourne and Flemington where 1200 public tenants live.

It argues that the towers, which are 50 to 70 years old, have aged beyond their useful life and have major problems, including with the sewerage system at the Carlton flats. In October, Homes Victoria chief executive Simon Newport described the Carlton towers as uninhabitable and an eyesore, adding that “they need to come down quickly”.

Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan and her predecessor, Daniel Andrews.Credit: Gus McCubbing

But McIntyre, who visited the Carlton estate with The Age this week, disagreed.

“I think it’s an absolute disgrace that they would demolish it, to be honest,” he said.

McIntyre was working with building firm Clements Langford in the 1960s when it won the contract to build one tower at Carlton.

“We built the tower using a standard reinforced concrete frame, sheeted in brick,” McIntyre said. “Well, the Housing Commission were so pleased with the thing, they said, ‘We’d like you to do another one beside it’.”

This week McIntyre surveyed the Carlton towers from outside and said he couldn’t see a single crack.

“The exterior of the building hasn’t deteriorated,” he said. “The frame is perfectly good. The exterior walls are perfectly good.”

McIntyre – a friend and student of architectural doyen Robin Boyd and the designer of celebrated projects including Melbourne’s 1956 Olympic Games pool – said that building interiors tended to wear out over the decades but could be refitted and apartments reconfigured.

“I can’t understand why they want to demolish them,” he said. “I mean, if you wanted to replace them, you’d probably do the same construction, the same thing.

“You’d build a tower with reinforced concrete sheeted with brick or some equivalent material like the brick.”

Clearance of ‘slums’ in Fitzroy in 1971.Credit: The Age

The state government has described the high-rise redevelopment as “the largest urban renewal project in Australia’s history”, eventually housing three times as many residents over the next 30 years in a mix of “social” and private housing – but detail is scant.

The state opposition and Greens have slammed the government for failing to provide evidence to justify the demolition plan and for announcing it before consulting the thousands of residents of the towers.

A government spokeswoman said the redevelopment would “boost social housing by at least 10 per cent – delivering modern, fit-for-purpose housing that every Victorian can be proud to call a home”.

Brian Howe – a respected Victorian Labor elder, one-time federal housing minister and former deputy prime minister in the Hawke and Keating governments– said he was “shocked” by Andrews’ September announcement.

Paul Keating and Brian Howe at the first cabinet meeting of Keating’s government in December 1991. Credit: Peter Morris

“You had the premier announcing, not just that there’ll be some redevelopment, but that the high rise effectively would be eliminated. I thought that was quite extraordinary,” he said.

“Public policy should always be based on proper investigation, and on something like this you would expect a process of public consultation right from the start.

“But there appears to have been no proper investigation, and definitely no consultation.”

Howe – who as a Methodist minister in Fitzroy in the 1960s when so-called slum clearances paved the way for the public housing towers – criticised the “effective privatisation” of public land by the Labor government.

He said he was concerned that ultimately the redevelopment would “reduce the amount of public housing in the inner-city close to jobs and services – which is already dramatically insufficient”.

“If the towers can be saved, they should be,” he said.

The National Trust has welcomed heritage consideration for the towers, with national chair Lachlan Molesworth noting such protection had been granted to social housing interstate and internationally.

“Heritage is not just about large mansions and grand public buildings,” he said. “It is also about preserving examples of buildings and places which are an important part of our social history and fabric.”

Melbourne University professor of urban planning David Nichols said the towers meant “a huge amount to Melbourne”.

“They were a real signpost about the value of keeping people living in the inner city when there was a major drift away,” he said.

Nichols said the towers had been reviled by many including those who were “in mourning for the housing they replaced”.

“Some people see them as a blot on the landscape, but there’s fewer and fewer people seeing them that way,” he said.

“It seems to me to be very short-sighted to pull them down; to demolish them is like deleting an element of Melbourne’s working-class history.”

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