Design comp complete … but isn’t there something missing?

With much fanfare, the State Government announced a winner of the Flinders St Station design competition last month, but there was one rather important detail missing.

The winning design, by HASSELL, Herzog and De Meuron, looks spectacular with large white tubes enclosing the stations platforms, but the Government is yet to allocate any funds towards the project.

$1 million was spent on the competition, but the activation of the design may never actually go ahead.

To further prove the thirst for change at the iconic station, the people’s choice award had a huge number of voters.

Almost 19,000 people voted on their favourite design. A design from University of Melbourne won the people’s choice award.

The winning HASSELL, Herzog and De Meuron design came third in the people’s choice award.

Victorian Premier Dennis Napthine said the winning proposal really opened up the station.

“The proposal offers tremendous benefits to Victorians, connecting the city to the north with the river and Southbank, while, at the same time opening up views and access to the historic administration building,” Mr Napthine said.

“The jury has praised the winning design for its respect to heritage of the administration building while creating new and memorable additions to the station, such as the vaulted train hall, the new gallery and riverside amphitheatre,” he added.

Minster for Major Projects, David Hodgett, echoed the Premier’s thoughts and hinted at the prospect of making the design a reality, without specifically saying the project would be eventually be funded.

“The jury praised the HASSELL, Herzog and De Meuron design for its ‘evident sophistication and overall quality’ going on to add that it ‘could indeed provide a major city-changing outcome with benefits for all Victorians’,” Mr Hodgett said.