Some of the early Marion Griffin drawings of dwellings and other buildings in the centre of Canberra are very different from what has happened.
The Griffins imagined a far more densely populated city. However, they were designing before the internal combustion engine had its way. Now, as people see cities less dominated by the car, higher densities and greater reliance on walking and public transport have dominated public-policy thinking. This would result in greater efficiency of use of infrastructure, it has been argued. The public appeal has been for a livelier city centre that does not empty at 5pm.
Riding on the back of this policy have been several major high-density developments in the centre of town: James Court, pictured above, Monterey and the ANZ site on Ainslie Avenue.
These sites have been possible because of changes to policy, a slump in commercial-property alternatives and the run down state of the existing building.
Whereas the aim has been to increase the permanent residential base of the inner city to add life to Civic, this may not happen. James Court is more a luxury hotel than cosmopolitan city living. It is marketed as serviced apartments. The apartments are high quality, indeed some are luxury. They present good investments because they satisfy an untapped market: people who come to Canberra for between a fortnight and a year. That is too long to live out of suitcase or too expensive for a hotel, but too short to buy a house. The serviced apartment is the happy medium.
The ANZ site will also have a significant proportion of serviced apartments.
This is an unintended consequence and will do little to transform Civic from its present state as a centre of daytime office work and nighttime surrender to the nightclub kids.
The test of whether Civic will house a significant number of residents in the next decade the way that European cities do will come has not yet been proven.