Market Way at 100 Franklin St is a new landmark development nestled within the Queen Victoria Market precinct, an area undergoing an exciting transformation in Melbourne’s CBD.

Through stitching together a network of urban laneways and proposed green boulevard as part of COX’s master plan, the 38-level tower creates an active vertical student community atop a new southern gateway to the market precinct.

“A series of crafted masonry buildings along an expanded Blender laneway offer active retail edges, with wellness and entertainment spaces located above for resident use,” says COX Senior Associate Johannes Lupolo-Chan.

COX has retained the four-storey heritage Burbank House which has been adapted to house all the building’s unique common spaces, connected through a central atrium and vertical circulation network designed to foster a safe and welcoming building community.

The placement of these spaces at the lower levels promotes engagement between residents and the neighbouring precinct through a series of external landscaped terraces designed to provide spaces of respite, entertainment and urban greenery. 

“We’re thrilled to be working with Journal as they embark on their next exciting chapter,” says COX Director Simon Haussegger. “They’ve already set the bar extremely high, but their future projects will absolutely change the Australian student living landscape as we know it.”   

COX has retained the four-storey heritage Burbank House which has been adapted to house all the building’s unique common spaces, connected through a central atrium and vertical circulation net-work designed to foster a safe and welcoming building community.

The Burbank House site has a rich history dating back to the 1800s. James Harrison, engineer and inventor of the refrigeration process, operated a brick ice factory there until the 1880s.

The site was then purchased by Ferguson and Urie, glass manufacturers and importers, who developed the four-storey Burbank House building in 1891. Designed by A E Duguid and built by William Rankine, the warehouse was used to store and design their stained-glass products.  

Later uses of Burbank House – with multiple design iterations throughout the years – included building coaches, iron mongering, and as a warehouse space for importers and shipping merchants. 

The project is due for completion in 2025.

This article was originally published by Cox Architecture – read original article here.