Why Melbourne Cancelled the World's Tallest Building 

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

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

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.

The Grollos, including the sons that run the company today are just cheap bastards.

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.

Orange and gold are great colours for skyscraper facades, although they are probably more expensive than colourless glass which might be why they aren't as common.

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

We'll see what the future holds! Thanks for watching

Thank you for your comment, these towers can certainly cast some nasty shadows

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.

Thanks a ton!

Thank you for your comment. We put a lot of faith in the engineers, architects, and builders who labour for many years to create these skyscrapers

Many thanks!

The DCM design is my favourite too. Thanks for watching!

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

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.

The open mechanical floors and solar roof were revolutionary at the time; they are very common on skyscrapers these days, but not in the 1990s. Thanks for watching

Thank you so much!

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?

Thanks so much for watching!

Thank you for sharing. Grollo was definitely a visionary who wanted to put his city on the map.

@@Contraflex amazing RU-vid thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt so much - thank you 🙏

That's 350m

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.

Thank you for sharing. Your sentinment regarding skyscrapers is very relatable and makes perfect sense.

We'll see what happens, thanks for watching!

Thank you so much for the feedback. This is my only RU-vid channel but I have been learning 3D animation in Blender in my free time for about the past two and a half years.

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 can't believe I haven't heard of the pantscraper before... the crown of that arch would have been a nightmare for the structural engineers...

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

Thanks for sharing, it sounds like there was only enough money in the government piggy bank for one megaproject at the time.

Thanks for watching.

There is probably some truth in that

Thank you for the feedback, I really enjoyed making this video about such an important chapter in the history of Australian architecture

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.

I like the name idea, similar to Australia 108 which was planned to have 108 stories but ended up with "only" 100.

Thank you for sharing this, I will do some research into Brisbane's cancelled towers.

You are certainly correct. Thank you for watching and the feedback

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.

Especially that one.

Another viewer pointed out that that the second design looks like The Shard in London.

Yes it definitely wouldn't stick out as much today.

Thank you for clarifying, I always thought the moment of inertia was equal to the second moment of area, but you are right.

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

It's definitely more unique, there aren't many hexagonal skyscrapers with an orange facade.

According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (the organisation who maintains the rankings of the world's tallest buildings), an antenna is not counted when considering the "Height to Architectural Top", which is the metric used for the rankings. So in your example, the 50 storey tower would be taller to the architectural top, and thus the taller building. However, if the antenna was an architectural spire, then it's height would be counted the 49 storey building would be considered taller. Some people prefer to consider only the height to the "Highest Occupied Floor", in which case the 50 storey building would win. So, your question is difficult to answer and depends on who you ask.

I didn't model the fire escape stairs, although they definitely would have been a part of the core. The Burj Khalifa has a whopping 57 elevators, it makes sense when you think about how many people work/live in these buildings, how far the elevators travel, and the goal of minimising waiting times.

I always thought the antennae on top of the Sears Tower looked out of place. But I like the blockiness and tapering size of the tower.

There is a new proposal for Australia's tallest building called STH BNK in Melbourne. Fingers crossed that it goes ahead.

Thanks dude!

The World Trade Center is definitely one of the pioneering examples of the columnless interior and inspired many other buildings.

"Sail thing where people sing" 😂 It took me a moment to realise what you were talking about

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 :)

I agree, we'll leave that honour to the Middle East and Asia.

One of my favourite skyscrapers is Riparian Plaza in Brisbane, which was also designed by Harry Seidler. You can see some similarities between it and his vision for the Grollo Tower, in particular the open mechanical floors, the communications spire, and the massive glass entry awning.

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

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 😂

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

A reference to Opal Tower I assume?

over 900 defective buildings found by the newly appointed govt building inspector from newcastle to wollongong with over 100 found to need urgent repairs. Clearly self regulation doesnt work.

@@billmago7991 Incredible, I had no idea of the scale of the defects. Deeply concerning.

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

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.

My favourite design as well.

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).

Thank you for teaching me about the edifice complex, I've never heard of it before. I just think skyscrapers are awesome... the combined effort of thousands of humans to transform ground up rocks into works of art taller than almost anything made by nature is pretty cool. The political side of skyscrapers is kind of boring to me.

Huge respect to you for being able to work at heights, it's not for the faint of heart

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

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.

It seems like that sometimes!

Many viewers share your opinion towards Grollo and his tower

@@Contraflex thanks for the amazing upload and work that went into this btw

@@madrx2 I'm glad you enjoyed the video :)

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.

Thank you for sharing. I was also surprised to read that the tower would interfere with Melbourne Airport (can't the planes just fly around it?) but I understand it is a valid concern since it resulted in Australia 108 being shorter than initially planned.

@@Contraflex - Thanks for your reply. My understanding of why 108 was chopped down to 100 was because of the shadows being cast on the war Memorial. Not sure why that was significant. Perhaps they are unaware that shadows move. 20 minutes of shadow late in the day seems inconsequential to me. There is plenty of content for you to explore in Melbourne's construction industry if you have access to the information. Docklands is a story that makes no sense to anyone but those who profit from it.

@@warpeace8891 I did some research and it looks like the story about the shadow being cast on the War Memorial is true. "Fluid City" by Kim Dovey was a great resource for researching this video, I'm sure it will have information on other interesting construction projects in Docklands.

@@Contraflex - Individual contracts/projects are not going to be of much relevance in Docklands. Just in case I point you in the right direction... Docklands is different to anywhere else in the world as far as I am aware. The Docklands precinct was under the governance of the Melbourne City Council until they decided to "gift" it to three separate corporations to manage and profit from. These three sectors are distinct and independent of each other without the same business codes and building codes etc. Each corporation decides what gets built, how why when and who can do activities in its sector. They are not subject to the same standards or requirements as the the rest of Melbourne City Council. I have dealt with these entities for over a decade and they are effectively three corporate kingdoms. If you walk around Docklands it will be obvious that everything is designed to make money for giant corporations and people are an afterthought at best. The tiny bits of public space that are in Docklands are put in places where a highrise cannot be built. Or they are too small to be of much use. 4 years ago there was small primary school built with no grass or significant play areas at all. 10 years ago there was a library built. These are the only public building facilities in docklands. The area is full of empty commercial spaces. Small business rarely last more than a couple of years. Many of the apartments have never been occupied. Officially they claim up to 20% unoccupied. In reality it is likely to be between 50% - 70% unoccupied. I moved in 2012 and I remember saying then that this will be an inner city slum - it just doesn't know it yet. They do not allow charities to operate... I tried for years without success. It is all about MONEY NOW in Docklands. There is very little green areas or trees or maintenance and litter is ignored until New years eve festivities. It is corrupt and a Public policy disgrace. The council and the state government will tell you the opposite. Hailing it as the reason Australia did not have a recession in 2008/9. It is a lie. Federal government stimulus conveniently left out of that story. The publicly available info would be enough to make a documentary. I know there is much dirt under this carpet but I don't know the details and I don't expect it to ever become public. Best of luck to you.

@@warpeace8891 I appreciate your detailed comments. The Docklands primary school is unlike any I've seen in Australia before, such a tiny campus but the multi storey buildings are reminiscient of a university.

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?

I would say the Burj Khalifa is a major attraction for the UAE

Small pp energy

It would have been great to put Melbourne on the World map. It would make it easier to get to the formula 1 Grand Prix or the Grand Slam tennis.🤔