Woods Bagot designs new Victoria Police Centre

The Woods Bagot-designed Victoria Police Centre in Melbourne is set to proceed after the Victorian government announced it had completed its assessment of the proposal.

The development is a market-led proposal put forward by Australia Post and Cbus Property for a site adjacent to the existing City West Police Complex at 313 Spencer Street, also designed by Woods Bagot and completed in 2015. The new building will be located next door at 311 Spencer Street.

Market-led proposals are proposals from the private sector to enter into an arrangement with the government to deliver services and infrastructure. The culmination of the fifth and final stage of the assessment process sees the contract awarded to the proponents.

The new building will be 39 storeys and includes a public foyer on the ground floor and an interpretation centre to exhibit police memorabilia and artefacts. It will house 2,500 police personnel.

The canopy and public forecourt of the proposed Victoria Police building by Woods Bagot.

The canopy and public forecourt of the proposed Victoria Police building by Woods Bagot.

Image: Courtesy Woods Bagot

Woods Bagot principal Simon Dick said the firm looked at some of the design elements and ideas it explored for the City West Police Complex to connect the two buildings together.

The design brief for the new Victoria Police Centre was to create “a building that had a visual transparency to it at ground floor so it was inviting to the public” rather than “stand-offish,” Dick said.

“One of the key features in the first [building] is a public forecourt at the base. It sits at the corner of Spencer and La Trobe streets, anyone can go in there,” said Dick.

He continued: “What we’re trying to do is continue the quality of that landscape and public realm that’s been created on the corner there and bring it across the street front along Spencer Street.”

Another key feature is a large canopy front that engages with Spencer Street.

“We’re going to bring that canopy along the front of the building so it will look, at the end of completion, as if the canopy has always been there and it’s been built as one overall complex,” Dick said.

“On the existing building there’s a giant tessellation on the underside of the canopy. We’re going to bring that across and we’re going to have elements of vision panels to allow good light penetration down into the ground plane and smaller forecourt.”

Currently half of the police force is located in the existing City West Police Complex and the other half is located at the World Trade Centre.

“What this new building will do is take the remainder of the police force from the World Trade Centre […] and create a whole [new] precinct, so the whole police force will be in one location and they’ll have an equal level of amenity and accommodation that is equal across all members,” Dick said.

The development is expected to be complete by 2020, to coincide with the end of Victoria Police’s lease at the World Trade Centre.

Related topics

More industry news

See all
The proposed Gurrowa Place designed by NH Architecture, Kerstin Thompson Architects, 3XN Australia, and Searle × Waldron Architecture. Queen Victoria Market towers approved

The Victorian Department of Transport and Planning has approved a $1.7 billion project to create three towers adjacent to Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market.

The building’s design incorporates elements to reference both Vietnamese and Australian culture. ‘Nationally significant’ cultural museum on its way

Brimbank City Council in Melbourne’s north west has agreed to sell a parcel of land to the Vietnamese Museum of Australia, paving the way for …

Most read

Latest on site

LATEST PRODUCTS