Purchase of site

December 2017

In what has been called 2017 central Melbourne’s property deal of the year, Beulah purchased the landmark BMW site located at 60 Southbank Boulevard.

The site allows Beulah to deliver a spectacular development of an unprecedented scale for Melbourne, drawing together leading figures in international design and placemaking to create a world-class, multi-use development that sets a benchmark in liveable city design.

The Global Search

February 2018

Finding the right architects to collaborate on this project – one Australian and one international – led Beulah around the world on a quest and launched a six-month-long competition.

This major event saw leading international architecture firms collaborate with local firms to propose groundbreaking designs.

These partnerships were BIG and Fender Katsalidis, COOP HIMMELB(L)AU and Architectus, MAD Architects and Elenberg Fraser, MVRDV and Woods Bagot, OMA and Conrad Gargett, and UNStudio and Cox Architecture.

The Jury

March 2018

The seven-member jury comprised of Beulah’s Executive Director Adelene Teh, Managing Director Jiaheng Chan, BMW Group Australia CEO Marc Heinrich and four independent jurors: Victoria’s Government Architect Jill Garner as Jury Chair, Thomas Kvan (former Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne and Director of the Australian Urban Research Information Network), Cameron Bruhn (Editorial Director of Architecture Media), and Architectural Photographer John Gollings.

Mid-stage review & site visit

May 2018

The mid-stage review took place at the Suspended Studio in the Melbourne School of Design, on the University of Melbourne’s Parkville campus.

Behind closed doors, the six architecture teams presented to the STH BNK By Beulah jury their designs and initial concepts.

Open Q&A At Melbourne School of Design

July 2018

Taking place during the mid-stage review of our STH BNK By Beulah design competition, Beulah provided the students of Melbourne School of Design – the University of Melbourne’s graduate school of the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning – with the money-can’t-buy meeting with some of the world’s leading architects. At this meeting each shared with the students of MSD their expertise and unique thinking, providing valuable insight into boundary-pushing design.

Beulah Pavilion

July 2018

An ephemeral pavilion was built as part of the STH BNK By Beulah Architectural competition and Future Cities Symposium. The Pavilion hosted the presentations by internationally-renown architects over several days and became a public display of the submitted schemes over a 2 week period. Sited on Queensbridge Square, the pavilion was designed to be an interactive sculpture for the public as it could be experienced from multiple viewing points, via the river, the square, and the central business district beyond.

Designed as a commentary of the city being in a constant state of flux, the pavilion utilises concentric frames to capture how an iterative process can lead to a sculptural outcome.

Final Presentation

July 2018

The six international architecture teams for the STH BNK By Beulah architectural competition presented their vision to the highly regarded jury members with their final boundary-pushing designs.

Future Cities Symposium

July 2018

Beulah hosted a sold out symposium in late July, allowing the six international architecture teams for STH BNK By Beulah to reveal their designs as part of the architectural competition. The symposium was the first opportunity for the public to see the designs. With over 1,000 attendees from numerous industries such as government, property, architecture, finance, as well as the general public, the event labelled Future Cities, focused on growing and evolving Melbourne.

Opened by Victorian state Treasurer Tim Pallas, speakers who presented their team’s design included Brian Yang Partner of Bjarke Ingels Group, Wolf. D Prix co-founder of Coop Himmelb(l)au, Ma Yansong founder of MAD Architects, Winy Maas co-founder of MVRDV, David Gianotten Managing Partner-Architect of OMA and Caroline Bos co-founder of UNStudio.

An immersive experience greeted guests featuring the competitions prominent architects, while a 270 degree screen brought each 20 minute presentation to life.

The Winning Competition Design

August 2018

The winning concept was titled Green Spine, a collaboration between the Dutch design firm UNStudio and the local firm Cox Architecture. The project has since had unanimous endorsement from the City of Melbourne’s Future Melbourne Committee.