Re: Exhibition St extension (was Re: closing tram stops)

[steam4me@enternet.com.au (Yuri J Sos/Melbourne AUS)]

dbowen@custard.net.#SPAMTRAP#.au (Daniel Bowen) wrote, and I
selectively quote:

>that all the new buildings on the northern side of Bridge Rd have
>a big garden or courtyard in front of them. My guess is that this
>is a requirement when rebuilding, and when a majority of them
>have been rebuilt, they'll demolish the rest, get rid of the 
>gardens/courtyards, and widen the road.

As a long-time resident of East Melbourne, I would suspect that the
plans to widen Bridge Road have been abandoned.  

Only last year the Portmans shop on the north-east corner of Lennox
Street and Bridge Road was completely rebuilt with structural piers
and beams extending the front of the shop to the street, eliminating
the former courtyard.  Likewise, the Epworth Hospital has also been
recently rebuilt right up to Bridge Road.  These two buildings would
cost an absolute fortune to demolish.  

As for the rest of the buildings, a majority of them are Victorian era
shop fronts and have Heritage restrictions placed upon them,
preventing demolition and limiting any major structural alteration to
the facade or outer appearance of the buildings.  The political cost
of demolishing these buildings would be too high.

The government only got away with demolishing the cable tram power and
cable-winding house on the corner of Punt Road and Bridge Road by
demolishing it on Boxing Day (I managed to get some photos of the
building coming down, but was prevented by security guards from even
being on the same side of the (public) road as the building).  The
building came down in one day - it actually occurred at the same time
as the demolition of the Clarendon Street bridge and I think the haste
of demolition and the security guards were a reflection of the
controversy that surrounded the demolition of that overbridge.

Regards

Yuri
--  

"The gene pool could use a little chlorine."