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For other uses, see Southbank

Southbank is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Australia in the state of Victoria. It is in the Local Government Area of the City of Melbourne. It is bordered to the north by the Yarra River, to the south by Park Street, Kingsway to the west, and to the east by St Kilda Road.

Formerly an industrial area and part of South Melbourne, Southbank was transformed into a densely populated suburb of high rise buildings beginning in the early 1990s as part of an urban renewal program.

The central feature became Southbank is Southgate, a retail, eating, and entertainment precinct on the southern bank of the Yarra River. Southgate features the iconic sculpture Ophelia by Deborah Halpern, which is the big Y symbol (representing Melbourne) that stands at Bear Brass cafe. Southbank is also home to the arts precinct, which includes the Victorian Arts Centre at the eastern end, an entertainment precinct which includes Crown Casino and an office precinct and a hi-density residential precinct which includes tall buildings such as the Eureka Towers. The Queensbridge Precinct includes Queensbridge Square, a pedestrian plaza and meeting place. Another riverside precinct to the west takes in the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre and Polly Woodside National Trust museum.

Promenade

The Southbank promenade runs along and continuing to the west of the Queens Bridge is Southbank Promenade, and Crown Casino including promenade restaurants.

A Sunday market occurs on the promenade near the Arts Centre. The promenade is also home to several buskers and a pavement chalk artist.

History

The suburb was the subject of urban renewal in the early 1990s aimed at stimulating development in a period when Melbourne was experiencing an economic downturn. At the time, the area consisted of some old factories and warehouses mostly built between the 1860s-1920s, a few old bridges, including the heritage listed Sandridge Bridge which was formerly part of the Port Melbourne rail line from 1888 to 1987, and the Arts centre precinct which was built in the 1960s on a former parkland.

Denton Corker Marshall designed and oversaw the original Southbank Promenade in 1990 which paved the way for development of apartments.

Southgate, Sheraton towers and new tall office buildings for Herald Weekly Times and IBM were built along with an award winning pedestrian footbridge at about the same time in late 1992, and combined with a new Sunday arts and crafts market, attracted local and tourist visitors to the area. At the eastern end of the area is the Victorian Arts Centre.

Further buidings including the Esso headquarters were built between 1992 and 1995. Development expanded along the Yarra westward with the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre ("Jeff's Shed") in 1996 and Crown Casino in 1997, stimulating the first residential towers. In 2001, the boutique "Melburnian" apartments, designed by Bates Smart were one of the first to be aimed at the owner occupier market and included the most expensive penthouse sold in Melbourne at the time. Clarendon Towers also attracted the owner occupiers. Beginning with Southbank Towers in 2001 and the Centurion in 2002, Central Equity began a swathe of apartment towers and at the same time the neighbouring Yarra's Edge precinct of the new Melbourne Docklands began to kick off.

The arts precinct was extended with the construction of the award winning buildings for theAustralian Centre for Contemporary Art in 2002 and the Victorian College of the Arts school of drama. At around the same time a new headquarters for the State Emergency Service was built.

Central Equity continued construction of several blocks of apartment buildings on much of the Southbank land which it had acquired including Riverside Place, The Summit, Melbourne Tower and City Tower. Most of them are aimed at the rental market and managed by Melbourne Inner City Management (MICM) a division of Central Equity.

With a boom in apartment building and the success of the Melburnian, the areas closer to the river began to attract developers aiming at the owner occupier market, targetting empty nesterEureka tower was begun in 2004, aimed at being the tallest residential tower in the world and finally completed in 2006, before which another tower had already assumed the title.

The Queensbridge Precinct began development in 2005 with Freshwater Place. A plaza linked to the north bank and Flinders Street Station via a pedestrian and cycle path developed from the Sandridge Bridge. The formerly disused bridge was opened to the public on 12 March 2006, just in time for the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The Northbank promenade was completed later in 2006 to link the sections.

An increasing number of corporations began opening their offices in Southbank. PricewaterhouseCoopers their office from Spring Street to Freshwater Place in 2005. Other names on the list include Fujitsu, and Foster's Group.

Transport

A number of tram lines run through Southbank, however there is no railway station.

Although Southbank promenade forms part of the Capital City Bicycle Trail, the large number of pedestrians in the area means bicycle riding at high speed is hazardous; advisory signs have been posted to try to keep cyclists at speeds of 10 km/h or less.

Gallery

• View from Southgate promenade across the Yarra River

References

• Queensbridge Square - Department of Sustainability and Environment

External links

• Southbank photos

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