Liberty Tower (Melbourne)

Liberty Tower
Liberty Tower (Melbourne) Southern and Western facades. Viewed from corner of Spencer and Collins Street.
General information
Status	Complete
Type	Residential Apartment Building, Small Business
Location	620 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Completed	2002
Height
Top floor	93 metres (305 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	27
Design and construction
Architect	Elenberg Fraser

The Liberty Tower is a 27-story high-rise residential building and small business tower located at 620 Collins Street on the corner of Collins and Spencer Street in the Melbourne City Centre of Australia.

Liberty Tower is located in the "Gdansk" end of Collins street on the north eastern corner of the Collins street and Spencer street intersection. The tower was completed in 2002 and is the first project of Melbourne Architect firm Elenberg Fraser. Zahava Elenberg and Callum Fraser of Elenberg Fraser were awarded the commission in 1998 by the Melbourne City Council. At the time, both were still architecture students at RMIT University.

The ground floor includes a number of convenience stores and shops. A secure carpark is located between podium and level 7.

The Tower consists of 237 apartments, which occupy levels 7 to 27, with 3 levels of sub-penthouses and one penthouse level. Level 7 includes a private gymnasium, spa and swimming pool for use by the tower's residents.

Elenberg Fraser’s first building was used as "an exercise in screening and the extruded site".

The façade references a building in collapse. "Appearing poised to slip off the building’s angled façade, the perforated aluminium shows the angst and distress of the tower and its immediate environment." The mesh screens reference the Japanese obsession with industrial detailing.

The mid-rise Liberty Tower offers a different experience on each of its four sides: "Liberty Tower is a compendium of approaches to facade treatment: the west and east faces investigate conditions of regularity, the north side explores the use and aesthetic value of function, while the south is organized around a black core symbolically exposing the building’s heartland."

The main façade shows a grid of perforated aluminium screens, including a vertical crease running down the full length of the facade. The North façade is raw, unfinished concrete resplendent with plywood markings and nail holes.

The Tower’s facade encapsulates many of the ideas and driving forces that went into the project. The western end of Melbourne’s central business district was seen at the time by the architects to be the "gritty underbelly" of Melbourne’s central business district, and the perforated, aluminum, eastern facade of the tower was made to represent that. The dressed eastern facade is one which was designed to clearly define the separation between the central business district of Melbourne and the rougher western suburbs at the time the design was taking shape.