Design competition launched for Red Stairs

The City of Melbourne will invite designers from across the country to reimagine both Southbank’s “Red Stairs” and Queen Victoria Market’s Queens Corner Building as part of a “design competition”. 

The first design competition projects as part of the council’s “Design Excellence Program” were unanimously supported by councillors at the August 13 Future Melbourne Committee meeting.

A makeover of the Red Stairs at Southbank’s Queensbridge Square has been proposed following strong community feedback to transform the aging landmark. 

The amphitheatre was built in 2006 and designed for buskers and entertainers to complement the cafes and shops that surround the Queensbridge Square pedestrian plaza next to the Yarra River.

As reported by Southbank News, since late last year the Yarra River Business Association (YRBA) has been advocating for the council to either significantly modify or remove the red stairs as it had become a “unsightly lump of concrete”.

While welcoming action, YRBA president Jeremy Vincent said the council was “moving glacially” on the question of Queensbridge Square and “particularly the disgraceful condition of the red stairs”. 

“We now need to go through the process of an Australia-wide competition, an assessment process, council endorsement of the winner, and finally a funding allocation in the capital works program. This all adds up to nothing happening in the Square until probably 2026-27,” Mr Vincent said. 

“The money and time to be invested in such a process will be far in excess of what a straightforward modification or removal of the steps would have cost.” 

“It’s annoying that our council needs to be dragged along to address fairly simple maintenance issues in what is Melbourne’s tourism hub.”

The competition is first run under the council’s new design competition guidelines, which were adopted in 2023, and will be open to Australian and international designers – with 60 per cent of shortlisted teams to be local, emerging or small design practices. 

The council’s chair of planning Cr Rohan Leppert said design competitions had proven to “lift the quality of a city’s buildings and places – encouraging new ideas while supporting the diversity of designers throughout the industry”. 

“We want to harness the incredible design talent and expertise in our own backyard. What better way to do that than by subjecting major public projects to design competitions,” Cr Leppert said. 

With such competitions having shaped some of the world’s most iconic landmarks – from the Eiffel Tower to the Sydney Opera House and Melbourne’s own Fed Square, Lord Mayor Nick Reece shared his enthusiasm for the initiative.  

“We’re another step closer to our first design competition in a generation – with a proposal to transform two prominent sites with enormous potential,” Cr Reece said.

“We know the red stairs are tired and in need of an overhaul. There’s a huge opportunity here to create a modern meeting place for Melburnians. A location that’s as well-known as ‘under the clocks’ at Flinders Street Station.” 

The yet-to-be-built Queens Corner Building is set to become a significant civic facility as part of the Queen Victoria Market precinct redevelopment – located directly across from the new Market Square. 

The new building has been envisaged to provide a new creative, community building incorporating a visitor centre, essential amenities, and supporting the activation of the square and market.

The winning designs will either proceed to commission or receive a dollar prize – with a potential $25,000 prize for the “red stairs”, and $35,000 for the more complex Queens Corner Building, subject to the competition scope. 

The competition would run for four to eight weeks in 2025, and include an open expression of interest, select requests for proposal and a final shortlisted interview. 

Construction of the winning designs would be subject to a draft concept endorsement from the council and community engagement. •