In Melbourne’s Federation Square, people are sitting on the steps, eating lunch among the pigeons under a sky that threatens drizzle. The cascading crazy paving and interlocking sandstone facades supposedly, in the architects’ vision at least, represent the desert heart of Australia. Across the road, a banner hangs from the walls of St Paul’s Cathedral: “Let’s fully welcome refugees.”
Melissa, an academic, walks out of the Koorie Heritage Trust, housed in the Yarra building on the square’s south side. It is due to be demolished to make room for a “flagship” Apple store, under plans announced by the state government a few months ago out of the blue and without public consultation.
The proposal for the jarring two-storey pagoda, dubbed “the Pizza Hut” by critics, was met with a fury that is hard to over-estimate. Petitions were started. Public debates were held.