City Edge

I feel I have a special connection with City Edge apartments as, a) my Dad worked for a development company in the early 70s that was involved with the project and b) a girl I was friends with lived in one with her Mum and I stayed over once in Grade 6 and we watched The Omen. Hated the movie, loved the apartment.

A bit more information, care of Museum Victoria:

"City Edge Housing Development, Eastern Road, South Melbourne, Victoria, designed by Daryl Jackson Evan Walker Pty Ltd, 1971-74.

The set of low-rise, high-density flats and town houses which comprise City Edge was one of the earliest attempts in 1970s Melbourne to provide an alternative to the typical suburban house and the high-rise apartment block. On a large inner-suburban site in South Melbourne, this scheme of three and five storey buildings found a balance between public and private space in a large scaled housing project. How to live close together and gain all the benefits of the single family house was the problem to be solved by the architects.

Between each row of houses and flats there is an elevated footpath which is connected by ramp and stairs to the street and to the communal garden in the centre of the scheme; this footpath is a public pedestrian street. The cars are hidden on ground level below. Private gardens, balconies, front doors, and the location of each block close to the street, recall the individuality of the surrounding 19th century terrace houses and the character of a cohesive streetscape.

Built in soft tan brick, concrete and stained timber, and with shops built into the scheme, the idea of a homogeneous village amidst native landscaping was for the average Melburnian a daring proposal for a new idea of home."

A further description from the excellent reference 'Australian Housing in the Seventies', Howard Tanner (published 1976), states:

"This may be the first urban housing scheme in Australia that offers an alternative to the high rise home unit towers which have dominated inner suburban planning for the past 20 years. It is especially important in Melbourne, where monolithic Housing Commission blocks in precast concrete have ruined many a fine skyline."

Oh and one is for sale at the moment. I would suggest much nicer than so many of the current high rise units on offer.