The future of the heritage building is now unclear, after plans for a satellite of Greece’s Benaki Museum were quietly shelved and Heritage Victoria refused developer ISPT’s revised plans for an office tower. | By Cara Waters carawaters
Heritage Victoria has refused a permit for the redevelopment of Melbourne’s historic former Land Titles Office on Queen Street.
Earlier plans for a new Greek museum for Melbourne on the site in a partnership between Greece’s Benaki museum and Melbourne’s Hellenic museum have been abandoned.Heritage Victoria says Melbourne’s former Land Titles Office is in a “perilous state” after refusing a permit for the redevelopment of the historic building that was at one stage slated to house a new Greek museum.were quietly shelved last year, and Heritage Victoria refused developer ISPT’s revised plans for an office tower.
Construction of the Land Titles Office finished in 1889 and it was included in the Victorian Heritage Register in 1982, recognising its “architectural, technical and historical significance to the state of Victoria”.Hellenic Museum / ISPT Heritage Victoria said the proposed demolition of areas including the boiler room and the former receiving and issuing hall to allow for the construction of the tower and the insertion of a large new entrance and lobby fronting Queen Street “would cause substantial harm and irreversibly diminish cultural heritage significance of the place”.
ISPT initially lodged plans in 2020 to redevelop the building into a $244 million satellite of Greece’s Benaki Museum in partnership with Melbourne’s Hellenic Museum, which it said would “bring back to life a true Melbourne landmark” and “cement the city’s reputation as an attractive cultural hub”. She declined to comment on why the Hellenic Museum had not continued with its plans for the Benaki Museum satellite in Melbourne.
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