Zaha Hadid will leave her mark on Melbourne’s skyline

Melbourne’s CBD skyline will be graced with a $300 million skyscraper located 582–606 Collins Street in Melbourne’s CBD, designed by the late Zaha Hadid, who died from a heart attack at age 65 in March this year.

The project is the second posthumous project approval designed by the award-winning Iraqi-born architect just this week— a 38-storey, fluid-form hotel which forms part of a new coastal city in Qatar was announced on Monday. It’s also the second Hadid-designed Australian project to be approved, following the $430 million Grace on Coronation towers in Toowong, Brisbane, being accepted last June.

Hadid collaborated on the design proposal before her death with local firm Plus Architecture.

The Victorian government stalled over the decision to approve the skyscraper, after concerns the building’s design would compete with the other high-rises on the west bank of the River Yarra — the height of the building, which was the main obstacle for the project, was lowered from 185 metres to 175 metres to gain approval. 

Once completed, the mixed-use building will come in at 54 stories, with 420 apartments and just over a 10,000-square-metres of retail and office space, and 330 square metres of ground-floor art space and a pedestrian laneway, that will connect Collins with Francis Street.

White latticework will wrap around the façade of the structure, which according to ZHA's director Michele Pasca di Magliano, takes its design inspiration from a series of stacked vases which narrow towards the base.

Zaha Hadid leaves a behind a legacy of ground-breaking buildings around the world.