Project Overview

The Metro Tunnel Creative Program has delivered a temporary pop-up park in Albert Road Reserve. Informed by community engagement, the park features timber decking, generous seating and new plantings to improve the aesthetic and amenity of the reserve.

Organisation

Cross Yarra Partnership

Team

The Cross Yarra Partnership delivers the Metro Tunnel Creative Program for its client, Rail Projects Victoria.

The Metro Tunnel Creative Program worked with its delivery partners The Place Agency, landscape architects Enlocus and Gardenridge Living Architecture to design, build and install a temporary pop-up park in Albert Road Reserve. Informed by community engagement, the park features timber decking, generous seating and new plantings to improve the aesthetic and amenity of the reserve.

Project Brief

Albert Road Reserve is located opposite the site where the new Anzac Station is being constructed, impacting local residents, businesses and schools (Melbourne Grammar and MacRobertson Girls’ High School are nearby) as well as the numerous visitors to the area that make use of Albert Park and its lake, the Shrine of Remembrance and Royal Botanic Gardens. The site was identified in 2018 as an area that would benefit from an uplift in amenity during the nearby construction of the new Anzac Station for the Metro Tunnel project.

In 2018, a community consultation process was undertaken with the support of City of Port Phillip, and 84% of the 93 respondents were in favour of a pop-up temporary park for an expected two-year duration of occupancy by Cross Yarra Partnership.

Based on the outcomes of further public consultation, the park design was revised to include better facilities for people with dogs and extra lighting.

The park was designed by Enlocus, built by Gardenridge and delivered by The Place Agency and Metro Tunnel Creative Program, and opened to the public in November 2020 with a launch event in January 2021. Since then the Creative Program and The Place Agency have activated the park, engaging the local community with free dog grooming activities, Anzac Day commemorations, chamber music, fundraisers for the Cancer Council, seedling giveaways and more.

Project Innovation/Need

This park has created a gathering space for people in the local area, in what had previously been a rarely used outdoor space. It is frequently used as a meeting place, eating spot, shelter, as seating respite and more. With additional lighting and CCTV, people feel that it is safer, and use it more often.

Local residents have provided feedback to the Creative Program that the park has created a better sense of community in the area. Activations in the park also seek to use local businesses for catering or dog grooming.

Design Challenge

The design challenges of the Metro Tunnel Creative Program are plentiful including:
• Providing uplift around construction sites while not increasing congestion
• Providing business support to those impacted by construction
• Helping people easily navigate the sites
• Providing amenity where it has been temporarily removed due to construction.

Albert Road Reserve is located alongside St Kilda Road and is opposite the Metro Tunnel construction site for the future Anzac Station. It is a windy area and as such, it can attract dust and debris so a key design challenge has been keeping the park clean and tidy, which is achieved by a rigorous schedule of maintenance, watering and cleaning. Safety has also been a concern, and in response to concerns raised by residents, CCTV and additional lighting has been installed to compliment the ambient strip lighting installed into the benches.

Sustainability

The pop-up park provides extra greenery to the otherwise fairly bare space.

The park uses wood and steel as its materials, and is planted with sustainability in mind, with minimal watering required, updated as required seasonally.

When decommissioned, the intention is to relocate the park elsewhere so that the materials have a longer life.