Why Melbourne Cancelled the World's Tallest Building
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- Опубликовано: 2 июн 2024
- In the late 1990s, Australian property developer Bruno Grollo planned to build the world's tallest building in Melbourne. Two separate designs were proposed by the architecture firms Harry Seidler & Associates (580m), and Denton Corker Marshall (560m).
In this video, we will explore the structural engineering behind these proposals, in particular how structures of these heights are able to resist extreme wind loads through their stiff concrete cores. We will also look at the unique features of the buildings, such as roof top solar panels, external glass elevators, and light beacons.
Despite the impressive architecture and engineering behind these buildings, a combination of community feedback and financial issues led to their cancellation. However, the towers continue to have an incredible legacy that influenced the world's current tallest building, the Burj Khalifa.
Chapters:
00:00 Intro
01:06 Grollo Tower
11:09 Melbourne Tower
18:42 Burj Khalifa
19:44 Melbourne's Skyline in 2024
Further Reading:
Chapter 9 of "Fluid City: Transforming Melbourne's Urban Waterfront" by Kim Dovey (2004).
Thank you to Harry Seidler & Associates and Denton Corker Marshall for providing images of their designs that were used as references for the 3D models in this video.
www.seidler.net.au/?id=31
dentoncorkermarshall.com/proj...
All music is by HOME (Randy Goffe).
/ randygoffe
/ rndygffe
home96.bandcamp.com/
In order of appearance:
🎵 Receiver
🎵 Head First
🎵 Burning
🎵 Bright Lights in Silent Rooms
🎵 Nerve Gas-Laugh Track
🎵 11
🎵 Flashlight
🎵 Above All
🎵 Hold
Thank you to SDC Performance for creating the Burj Khalifa 3D Model.
sketchfab.com/3d-models/free-...
Animated in Blender. 
Наука
This is INSANELY UNDERRATED!!! Perfect models animation editing research and voiceover! I WAS HERE before you get to 500k subs! Don't stop posting please!
Thank you so much for the feedback, I really appreciate it! I look forward to making more videos when I have the time. Your "One Year Anniversary" video has awesome cinematography and editing, so I hold your opinion in high regard.
Thank you so much!! Think you’re the 1st person to say that online!!! I made that when I was in 9th grade high school it’s been a while😂 but thank you so much for watching it!! Your videos deserve so much more attention since you can see how much effort goes into them!!
Also the music you use in your videos are awesome!!! I recognize some tracks from electronic gems 💎 !!!
Here gang!
@@Contraflex ngl it would look great in the melbourne skyline if it was built today. Guess it was just ahead of its time
Thanks for the memories!
I remember back then, I was disappointed too, that the Grollo tower wasn't built.
It would have been an impressive addition to Melbourne s skyline.
Instead we can look forward to the new STH BNK proposal, it has a very unique twisting design and will be Australia's tallest building if built.
Unless you have CBD1 and Sky Tower in Sydney
This tower reminds me of one word trade centre, wish it was built
@@Contraflex It's been approved and I think are under construction. Melbourne's CBD and now Southbank are windy cold hell holes, little sunlight and huge drafts from too many tall buildings.
The one that got away... I am always sad when a proposed supertall building gets cancelled but especially this once since nobody has dared to dream of a tower this tall in Oceania since! A total shame...
For the record the second design by DCM is much more polished despite it being blander. It would have made a great antipodean sister of London's Shard...
@@stickynorth The Shard is a great comparison to the DCM design, it's almost uncanny how similar they look. And I agree it's a total shame that these towers were cancelled, it definitely seems like we missed the last opportunity to have the world's tallest building in Oceania. I wouldn't be surprised if only the Middle East and China are able to compete for the record in the future.
Nothing more than a celebration of excess and brutalist dystopia.
Waste of money.
We don’t want it! It is ugly, unnecessary, ridiculous and just plain stupid! This is Melbourne, not some masculine utopian futuristic catastrophe! Thank God it got knocked back
So it was in fact Grollo not willing to finance the land for their own proposal that shut it all down. Probably should have sorted that out a little earlier on in the picture 🥴
In one sense, it's a good thing that Grollo's financial woes were not found out until the very end; as a result, we got to witness two incredible works of architecture.
Firstly what a fantastic video! Great graphics and visual execution! Secondly I loved the Denton design and the symbolism would have been apt as Melbourne has been casting around for a signature landmark.
This also could've been a feature piece to anchor the Docklands district and build around, instead the district is lacking identity and fallen into confusion.
I also admire the local passion that Bruno Grollo had for Melbourne and his desire to see it elevated (ha!).
I remember being disappointed when the Denton design didnt come into fruition.
I am looking forward the twisty sisters in Southbank though.
Thanks for sharing. For me, the landmark of Docklands is the stadium, when it could have been so much more. Fingers crossed that the STH BNK towers go ahead, they have such a unique design.
Perfect narration: if you aren't already a voice-over artist, you should be.
Wow I'm flattered, I never thought my voiceovers were that good which is why I used AI voiceovers in my previous videos. I will keep your feedback in mind for the future :)
This is the beginning of a great channel, and i am here for it!
We'll see what the future holds! Thanks for watching
really well done video with great animations and storytelling
Thanks a ton!
Nobody advocating for sunlight in Melbourne these days!
When I was 6 I wanted to be a builder and was obsessed with skyscrapers. I even wrote a letter to Bruno Grollo (with the help of my parents) and he wrote me back (I don't remember where the letter is now or what it said). I was super excited about this and remember being disappointed when it didn't get built.
That's an awesome story, I'm surprised Grollo would take the time to write back.
@@Contraflex I'm going to guess being a property developer he didn't get much fanmail so maybe it was special, especially coming from a 6 year old kid. Haha.
Hey mate, I work as a structural engineer here in Australia. Your explanations for how these systems work (PT decks, shear cores etc) are pretty much bang on. Do you happen to work in industry?
You guess is right, I am also an Australian structural engineer :) Thank you for the feedback, I'm glad to hear that my explanations were still accurate after simplifying them for a broader audience
Great video! I remember being so excited when the DCM design was approved. I wasn't that keen on the Harry Siedler design.
The DCM design is my favourite too. Thanks for watching!
Good presentation of animated facts.
This is fantastic. Can't believe the quality of it. Did you study 3D graphics/design or videomaking prior to starting this youtube channel? Do you run another channel?
Thank you so much for the feedback. This is my only RUclips channel but I have been learning 3D animation in Blender in my free time for about the past two and a half years.
Great video! As a Melbournian I think you are very talented. I think this would have been awesome to have in the city.
Fingers crossed that the new STH BNK skyscraper in Melbourne comes to fruition; it's twisting form is incredible.
Why would it have been awesome?
what a great video!
Thanks so much for watching!
Awesome video please do more like this thanks
Thank you so much!
I remember seeing a newspaper article about this a long time ago, seemed fanciful at the time.
Great video
Finally a video on this
FYI DCM did a circular 750m mixed-use tower design for Dubai that preceded the Burj Khalifa and followed on the footsteps of the Melbourne Tower. Amazing project and great shame it didn't go ahead. The outer layer was wrapped in perforated sheeting with a unique graphic patterning.
Thank you for sharing, I just looked at it on DCM's website and it's definitely a unique form. It's a shame there isn't more information about it on the net though.
I guess the Green Spine is as good as its going to get here in Aus for some time (if they can pull it off).
Great video mate. Never knew about this tower before!
That's 350m
Great video! I remember being super excited about this as a kid.
I think the original Grollo tower may have had more support if it was in dark blue or dark purple instead of Gold?
Gold is definitely an unorthodox colour for a skyscraper facade. In my opinion, it's a nice change from the typical shades of blue.
@@Contraflex Yep perhaps, good point.
i remember this, at the time i was so enthusiastic to see melbournes skyline transform into something more akin to the bigger citys like nyc etc, but now that it has moved progressively in that direction 30 years later i really feel like the city has lost its soul and old school character and is now just another cookie cutter metropolis in the making
Thank you for sharing. Your sentinment regarding skyscrapers is very relatable and makes perfect sense.
Wow dude you guna have 1m subs, keep going!!!
We'll see what happens, thanks for watching!
Interesting video
The design was sold and was going to be located at Doha convention centre in Qatar
Thanks for sharing, where did you hear about that?
@Contraflex look up doha convention centre tower, cancelled due to the construction of Hamand International Airport being in close proximity
if only it could be built!
5:20 its the area moment of inertia not the moment of inertia. The moment of inertia of the ruler in those two orientations is the same due to the integration of mass over the square of the distance.
Thank you for clarifying, I always thought the moment of inertia was equal to the second moment of area, but you are right.
what software was used for the 3d model?
The 3D models of the two Grollo Tower designs were made in Blender. The scenes which show the full city skylines with hundreds of buildings were made in Google Earth Studio.
@@Contraflex thanks!
@@ContraflexSketchUp and Archicad for mine
Wrong ! Canberra is the second coldest capital city. Not Melbourne
I checked the BOM website and it looks like it goes Canberra, Hobart, and then Melbourne, based on minimum temperatures in July (the coldest month). So l was wrong, apologies for that.
I wish I was an architecture nerd, I would love this.
But as a filthy casual I thought the "why Melbourne cancelled their biggest tower" would be more about.. I guess that and the project management, but the description of the physics was a little too dense for me to enjoy.
Still, Its clear the amount of work that went into this, so nicely done!!
Thank you for the feedback, for me the engineering and physics is the most interesting part of a story like this, but I can see the appeal of the project management and political details.
Amazing video mate!
I've always been interested in this backstory so thank you for creating a video on it!
Thank you for the feedback, I really enjoyed making this video about such an important chapter in the history of Australian architecture
both designs are still kind of awesome
It should have been built and named Melbourne580.
I like the name idea, similar to Australia 108 which was planned to have 108 stories but ended up with "only" 100.
would be nice to build a building like that. Though it wouldn't be the worlds tallest, it would look better in the Melbourne CBD skyline now with the taller buildings
Yes it definitely wouldn't stick out as much today.
Second design was great. So disappointed it wasn’t built
Another viewer pointed out that that the second design looks like The Shard in London.
I swear skyscrapers are always cancelled 😭🙏
I like both of them
The column-less floorplan is somewhat similar to the original World Trade Center but sturdier.
The World Trade Center is definitely one of the pioneering examples of the columnless interior and inspired many other buildings.
If Private Developers sort 'Public Opinion' on every project, nothing would ever get built
That's true, but I would argue anything as large and impactful to a city as a skyscraper should definitely have a large amount of public consultation.
good
fuck private developers
Melbourne needs something to put us on the map
There is a new proposal for Australia's tallest building called STH BNK in Melbourne. Fingers crossed that it goes ahead.
I like the video but I have a question why is your voice different? no offense
Thanks for watching, I used a TTS program for previous videos but I finally purchased a decent microphone for this video so I was able to record voiceover. Hopefully you prefer the real voiceover, otherwise I just wasted $100 😂
grollo wanted 1/2 the money up front before they even started construction that's why
Melbourne councils complain daily about buildings exceeding heights of 11 metres even in urban town centres under 10 kilometres from the CBD so what did you expect.
I don’t think Melbourne will ever house the world’s tallest building. It’s not rich enough, doesn’t have the manpower, not big enough
I agree, we'll leave that honour to the Middle East and Asia.
I remember when it was a thing. I collected 3 or 4 brochures of the building. I may still have one among all my collected crap over the years.
If you manage to find a brochure, it would be great if you could share it, perhaps on the Grollo Tower Wikipedia page. Despite its size, there is very little information about the building online.
@@Contraflexfictional status
Melbourne city council wanted more money in bribes 😂.
There is probably some truth in that
Denton
Thank god it wasn't actually built. What an eyesore. Also, great video quality - keep it up if you want to be a serious content creator.
Thank you for the feedback! Although I must admit I disagree with you on the aesthetics of the buildings :)
@@Contraflex I can only agree on the latter design. And eh, Docklands couldn't be any worse than it is now. I get depressed even driving through it
The orange one is too ugly for Melbourne's skyline. The second one would have been pretty cool. It's a shame that the government weren't more supportive.
I agree with you, I think I prefer the second design.
I kind of disagree. it would've looked very odd back then, but now we are seeing some more abstract and unique designs popping up. it would've looked better in Southbank rather than over the railway lines near the Batman Avenue Bridge though, it contrasts too much with the buildings in the East End and just looks out of place
11:48 tiresome phallic egos vs fresh yonic sustainability shapes.
It’s strange that you’ve got the Architect wrong.
Whilst it’s possible that Seidler designed a version of Grollo Tower, it was not the definitive design that was proposed to Council.
Denton Corker Marshall designed a far more slender and beautiful tower sited at the west end of Collins Street in the late 90’s.
From my research (Fluid City by Kim Dovey), Seidler was a serious contender who designed the first iteration of the tower. You can see Seidler's drawings on the firm's website. However, you are right in that the DCM design was the one that had a higher chance of being built (which is covered in the second half of the video).
Bruno Grollo had a very bad Reputation in Australia. Payments were (too often) paid short, leaving Trades with debts and some in financial failure.
I don't think that Australian Companies would want to 'get involved' with Grollo again.
Many examples I have heard of were to avoid Grollo.
Fact that they could not / would not pay for the Land is a warning ⚠️ sign.
Thank you for your comment. I agree that Grollo's reputation was less than stellar. Perhaps if the design was in the hands of another developer, it would have come to fruition. But the fact is that there were probably no other developers as ambitious as Grollo.
@@Contraflex
After 51 years in this caper, I have dealt with many Trades, mainly HVAC, Plumbing and Electrical/Data. All the 'players' I met said the same.
A Man that thinks a huge set of Bulls Testicles (at the entrance to his Preston Residence) is a reflection of his strength is kiddin himself. You mistake 'bluff and greed' with ambition.
The groll9s were an end of an era graft and corruption mafia family, not corageous entrepreneurs.
Glad a monument to tbeir criminal greed was not erected.
Many viewers have the same thoughts about the Grollos as you, I was not aware he was so controversial, but I can understand it now.
@@Contraflex the grollos amongst other things were early in on a cartel of hijacking the supply and pricing of concrete to the construction industry.
Every building needed their inflated price product.
Folklaw rumours tbat if you went up against their monopoly you might end up sleeping in a slab at the bottom of a construction site.
Concrete hijacking of supply and pricing made them rich and a foot in the door to their mafia organisation. Folklaw said if you cross them you may end up sleeping in a slab at the bottom of the next skyscraper@@Contraflex
As a work at height professional today and a Melbournian most of my life I’m surprised I’ve never heard of this baby and also, what a hair raising prospect to do maintenance up top. I hate architects (jk)
Huge respect to you for being able to work at heights, it's not for the faint of heart
Fascinating if they're worried about Shadows I wonder what they do at night time
🤦♀️🤦♀️Give me strength. I’ve found a child with an edifice complex. No one cares about having the highest building. It was a rubbish proposal then. And it still is in retrospect.
Not posdible as the airspace for airports cannot be intended by skyscrapers under Australialn aviation law. This pipe dream gets quashed again and again.
Short sighted
You’ll find that you cannot build these tall buildings in the Melbourne CBD because of the airport landing splay from Tullamarine Airport. This is the reason why the super tall buildings are in Southbank in Melbourne.
That's quite interesting how just a slight shift in a building's position across the river can clear it from causing any airport interference.
Wrong
Would you elaborate?
For real @@Contraflex
Personally I think we have too many tall buildings in the city now. These tall buildings create wind tunnels and leave streets in permanent shade and freezing cold. There should be stricter height limits applied here in Melbourne. Great cities like Paris and Rome generally don't have buildings above 10 floors and can still achieve high population densities. As someone who lives in the CBD I think the council has gone too far in allowing so many very tall skyscrapers, especially in the West and North West of the CBD, Spencer street is a freezing cold wind tunnel and unpleasant to walk down.
Yeah we should have more buildings in suburbs where it’s close to shopping centres, trains, etc
It is a shame that many of these skyscrapers were built without regard for how they would impact the amount of sunlight and the behaviour of wind near existing buildings, and once these new skyscrapers are built, it's impossible to undo the damage.
Bingo. Corruption and politics meant many classic Melbourne buildings were destroyed for high rises and as someone who has lived at times and worked in the cbd for 20 years, it’s gotten worse every year.
This would have been another unnecessary Grollo eyesore.
@@GL-xz3xk can’t imagine what the city whou have looked like with the grollo tower
@Detrabot Better without a doubt.
The pronunciation of 'building' as 'biw-ding' is so irritating.
Now that you mention it my pronounciation is a bit weird, I apologise for this.
just an ego fest for some man
It seems that was the case.
As a Melburnian, I'm glad this building never went ahead. It would have been a grossly over-scale distortion of the city's architectural integrity. Increasingly absurd vanity construction in various Arabian and Asian countries has defined such exploits as pathetic materialism. Australia can aspire to global leadership in more philosophically positive ways.
I agree with your views on the seemingly endless skyscrapers popping up in the Middle East and Asia. With regards to your second point, what fields do you see Australia leading the world in? Clean energy perhaps?
Its surprising that they cancelled it, because it was a stupid idea, but stupid is what Australia does best.
It seems like that sometimes!
In hindsight it seems pretty obvious that these proposals are pretty unrealistic.
Typical NANA STATE victoria
Shut up mate
Very very good 👍🏻 I like
I'm glad you liked the video.
No tallest building please. It does not make economic sense. Australia does not need any fictitious edifice. What is needed is good infrastructure and proper land use.
One and Two Grollo
A short sighted comment tbf. Did you not listen to what the creator stated? Having the tallest building in the world (at the time) would put Melbourne on the map, increasing business and tourism and many many jobs. That’s good for the economy.
I hate skyscrapers and I hate seeing my city (Sydney) becoming more densely packed with more tall buildings.
But these are efficient uses of land and they are private projects not gov't projects, so its not like money spent could have gone to public infrastructure instead.
@@alexandercarder2281 "The creator" is wrong. Western countries stopped going for height records in the 1970s because ultra-high buildings are more trouble than they are worth. Melbourne doesn't need to be "put on the map" by building what would have been at the time the world's dumbest skyscraper. Leave that sort of stupidity to places like Saudi and Dubai.
International recognition from a tall building? lol
I would argue that the first thing many people think of when asked about the UAE and Dubai is the Burj Khalifa.
City-scapes need such megalomaniac architectural and environmental monstrosities as they need pestilence. Thank goodness this one was never realised.
IMO Mega tall buildings are passé, unusual and original design is far more interesting.
Didn’t age very well luckily it never got built horrible looking building
I remember this, it was a meme and I’m glad it was never built.
I SAID MAKE THE TINSLEY TOWERS
Looks ugly. Eureka looks much better
I agree that Eureka looks better than the first design. However, I think the second design is the best looking.
Melbourne CBD is an eyesore
We dont need it 😊
Remember when this was proposed I was so excited that Melbourne was gonna be on the map just like Sydney we needed something Iiconic just like Sydney has the harbour bridge and the Opera house. This definitely should've been built. I can't believe it wasn't this stupid public were idiots. We would have been seen as an iconic city around the world.
I agree, it's a shame it was never built. But I don't think the public supported it, even in the comments on this video there is quite an even split between those for and against the building.
Because Australia 🇦🇺 is very poor and also low skilled. Can carry on daydreaming for it to materialise!
😂
you should be a comedian