Project Focus: Urbanest Proposal Flags Demand For Student Accommodation

599-605 Swanston Street will be home to a $61m proposed, 20-storey student accommodation tower for 628 student beds, according to plans lodged at the end of April.

Melbourne's student accommodation sector has seen a surge of in-progress and completed developments recently and is primed to receive another Urbanest location with the operator having sized up the 1,711 sqm island site - containing a heritage building - for its next opportunity on the Carlton Street.  The tower is set to be 61.5 metres tall with 289 units.

A wave of student-only accommodation has hit Melbourne recently with recent reports that a development race is underway for University of Melbourne’s planned overhaul of the old Melbourne Women’s Hospital site, also in Carlton.

"The articulation of detail across the facades aims to treat the building in the round with a responsive kit of parts that retains a considered reading from street and skyline. A fine bronze metallic blade pattern is distributed over a high-quality performance glass skin.

The level of transparency is controlled by the glass and blade density.

The pure glass skin is revealed at lower levels to make the active common areas and retail visible. At the skyline level the glass is also revealed to promote a sky reflectance and relationship to the commercial city backdrop." 

About Urbanest 

Since the outfit's creation during 2008 Urbanest have pursued a national roll-out of student accommodation projects. Now one of the nation's largest accommodation providers, Urbanest's Melbourne presence is more of a recent effort with their first project at 105 Berkeley Street, Carlton completed during 2014.

316 La Trobe Street, Melbourne reached completion for the start of the 2015 academic year with the Urbanest-branded tower designed by DKO Architecture. At 24 levels and containing as many as 1,250 student beds 316 La Trobe Street remains one of the tallest student accommodation buildings in Melbourne.

Coupled with 105 Berkeley Street's 188 beds and the intended 628 within 599-605 Swanston Street, Urbanest will eventually control in excess of 2,000 student beds within inner Melbourne.

Find entertainment and culture side by side with educational, business and retail facilities in the dynamic and diverse suburb of Carlton. urbanest Carlton is located on Berkeley Street just one block from the University of Melbourne, 10 minutes to RMIT, 2 minutes to several tram stops and within easy reach of Melbourne Central
3D Tour of Urbanest's completed Berkeley Street accommodation: