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How 720 Bourke Street’s Contorting Green Facade Shapes Melbourne’s Docklands Skyline

Hassell’s 720 Bourke Street, also known as Medibank Place, combines a contorting glass facade, vertical gardens, a full-height atrium and public-facing podium to create a distinctive Docklands office tower. Project sources report differing level and cost figures, so each number is attributed to its publisher.

By ThatPainter Team 18 October 2026
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720 Bourke Street, also known as Medibank Place, adds a distinctive profile to Melbourne’s Docklands by making its facade, planting, atrium and public podium part of one architectural system. Hassell designed the commercial office building for developer Cbus Property, with completion reported in 2014. Its glass envelope bends and shifts around planted elements, while gardens, a full-height atrium and visible environmental systems give the tower a more layered presence than a conventional glass office block.

The building’s exact level count depends on the source’s counting method. Multiplex describes a 16-level office building and lists 21 levels in its project numbers; the 11 July 2014 Architecture & Design feature calls it a 22-level building. Those figures should be treated as attributed descriptions rather than a single definitive count.

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What is 720 Bourke Street?

720 Bourke Street is a commercial office development in Docklands, Melbourne. It is widely known as Medibank Place because Medibank was the anchor tenant described in the original project coverage. Hassell designed the building and Cbus Property developed it. WSP identifies the project as completed in 2014, while Multiplex gives a June 2014 completion date and says it was appointed by Cbus Property to design and construct the development.

WSP describes a main tower rising above a four-level podium containing retail and a park. Multiplex says retail occupies ground and level one, with a gym and multipurpose sporting facilities also included. The 2012 planning report identified Cbus Property as the applicant for retail premises and a multi-storey office building that included a medical centre and a minor sport or recreation facility. That report records the planner’s recommendation as “Permit”; it describes the application proposal, not every element of the finished building.

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Architecture & Design reported more than 47,000 square metres of net lettable area and approximately 1,500 square metres of open garden space. The result is not simply an office floor plate stacked above a street frontage: its lower levels, planted edges and interior circulation spaces were designed to connect workplace activity with the public realm.

Why the facade changes the Docklands skyline

A contorting glass envelope

The building’s most recognisable feature is a contorting glass facade. Instead of presenting a flat, uniform curtain wall, the envelope shifts in a series of angled and folded planes. This movement catches changing daylight and creates different readings from Bourke Street, the waterfront precinct and surrounding towers. Graham Cottam, Regional Managing Director of Brookfield Multiplex Victoria, described the completed project as “the impressive building stands out on the Docklands skyline”, a statement that captures its intended visual role but is not an independent skyline assessment.

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The original Architecture & Design description identifies double glazing and perforated metal screens as part of the facade strategy. Double glazing forms the transparent weather barrier, while the perforated screens add depth, shade and a changing pattern across the elevations. The screens also prevent the planted components from reading as isolated decorations: vegetation, glass and metal are layered into the building’s outer skin.

Planting integrated with the exterior

Hassell’s design combines transparent office surfaces with planted elements rather than placing landscaping only at ground level. Fytogreen Australia, which designed and installed the vertical gardens, documents two vertical gardens of 200 square metres each. Its case study records 72 plant species and 11,600 plants in those walls, along with 520 pre-grown facade planters and 16 roof gardens.

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Those figures describe supplied components, not a measurement of how much vegetation remains alive today. They nevertheless explain why 720 Bourke Street reads differently from a standard glazed tower. Green walls provide broad vertical fields of texture; facade planters punctuate the perimeter; and roof gardens extend the planted language above the street. From a distance, the vegetation breaks up the apparent mass of the glass. At closer range, the planters establish a repeated scale that relates the tower to pedestrians and neighbouring buildings.

How the atrium and podium shape the experience

Atrium as a daylight organiser

The central atrium runs through the tower and was designed to bring natural light into interior areas. Architecture & Design describes it as a 22-storey atrium, while the building’s overall level count is reported differently by the project sources. The important design point is the atrium’s vertical continuity: it creates a visible interior void rather than a stack of sealed office floors.

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Natural light in the atrium gives occupants an internal reference point and makes circulation spaces legible without relying entirely on artificial illumination. It also allows views between levels, turning movement through the building into part of the architecture. These are design intentions and spatial characteristics; the available project material does not provide post-occupancy measurements of daylight levels, energy reduction or health outcomes.

A public-facing base

The podium places retail and other amenities at the part of the building most directly experienced from the street. WSP’s description of retail and a park over a four-level podium presents the base as an urban interface, not merely a structural support for the tower. Multiplex’s account adds a gym and multipurpose sporting facilities, while the planning proposal included a medical centre and minor sport or recreation use.

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This mix helps 720 Bourke Street contribute to Docklands beyond its silhouette. A tower that offers only private office entrances has limited street activity outside business hours. Retail, gardens and recreational uses create more varied reasons to approach the building, although the project sources do not provide measured pedestrian counts or an independent assessment of public access.

What sustainability systems are documented?

The building’s environmental approach combines water reuse, energy generation, air distribution and formal ratings. The systems below are project-reported features; they should not be read as proof of a particular level of operational performance.

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Feature Documented detail Source attribution
Rainwater storage 230,000-litre rainwater tank Multiplex project page
Water systems Recycled water is incorporated into the development Multiplex and Architecture & Design project descriptions
Air distribution Underfloor air-distribution system Multiplex project page
On-site energy Trigeneration and rooftop photovoltaic cells Architecture & Design feature dated 11 July 2014
Green Star Six-star Green Star Office Design and six-star Green Star Office As Built Multiplex project page
NABERS Five-star NABERS Energy Use Design rating Multiplex project page

Underfloor air distribution delivers conditioned air through the floor zone rather than relying solely on overhead ductwork. In a workplace, that arrangement can support flexible fit-outs because services are distributed close to occupied areas. The project descriptions establish the system’s inclusion, but they do not establish actual energy savings after occupation.

Recycled water and the large rainwater tank connect the building’s water strategy to its planted areas and general demand. Trigeneration indicates an integrated approach to producing electricity and useful heat or cooling, while photovoltaic cells provide an additional renewable-energy component. Again, the documented ratings and equipment describe design credentials and installed systems; no independent post-occupancy dataset in the available sources demonstrates measured water savings, emissions reductions or indoor-health effects.

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How much planting is actually part of the project?

Fytogreen’s case study supplies the clearest inventory of the living components:

  • Two vertical gardens, each measuring 200 square metres.
  • 72 plant species used in the vertical gardens.
  • 11,600 plants installed in those two walls.
  • 520 pre-grown planters supplied for the facade.
  • 16 roof gardens.

Architecture & Design separately reports two greenwalls and 1,500 square metres of open garden space. The different descriptions likely reflect different ways of counting landscape areas and components. They should not be added together as though they were one audited landscape total.

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The planting has an architectural purpose as well as a landscape one. Vertical gardens soften large expanses of glazing, planters mark the facade’s changing geometry and roof gardens make the upper parts of the development visible as occupied, planted surfaces. The combination gives the tower a seasonal quality that a purely metallic or glass envelope would not have.

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Which level and cost figures should you use?

Project sources use different definitions for both levels and cost. Keeping the labels attached prevents a misleading single-number summary.

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Publisher Figure What it describes
Multiplex 16 levels Its description of the office building
Multiplex 21 levels Level figure listed in the project numbers
Architecture & Design, 2014 22 levels Description of the completed building
Multiplex AUD $304 million Contract value
Architecture & Design, 2014 AUD $440 million Project value

The cost figures are not contradictory price quotes for the same measure: one is identified as contract value and the other as project value. The available material does not reconcile them, so neither should be presented as the building’s sole or universally accepted cost.

Who designed and delivered the building?

Hassell is the design practice associated with the building’s contorting facade, atrium and planted architecture. Cbus Property is identified as the developer. Multiplex says it was appointed to design and construct the development. Fytogreen identifies itself as the designer and installer of the vertical gardens and facade planting, while its case study attributes the overall vertical-garden concept to Hassell.

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This division of roles matters when describing the project. Hassell’s architectural design established the form and integration of landscape; Fytogreen’s specialist work translated the planting concept into living walls, facade planters and roof gardens; and Multiplex delivered the construction under its appointment from Cbus Property.

What changed after the 2014 completion?

In May 2023, Cbus Property announced the 720 LivingWork Lab, a design laboratory intended to reimagine the workplace. Woods Bagot reported its collaboration with that initiative. Chris Kakoufas, Cbus Property’s Chief Investment Officer, said: “720 Bourke Street presents an opportunity to reimagine what a workplace is, rather than simply updating a building with a new layout or finishings”.

The LivingWork Lab belongs to the building’s later workplace story, not its 2014 completion description. It shows that the property continues to be used as a setting for workplace experimentation, but it does not change the original facts about the facade, atrium, gardens or environmental systems.

What the project proves—and what it does not

720 Bourke Street demonstrates how a commercial tower can use form, landscape and shared amenities to make a stronger urban contribution. Its folded glass facade gives the skyline a moving profile; planted walls, planters and roof gardens interrupt the visual weight of the tower; the atrium brings daylight deep into the building; and the podium places retail and recreation at street level. Together, those moves explain why the project became a recognisable Docklands landmark rather than an interchangeable office block.

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The evidence supports claims about design, supplied landscape quantities, installed systems, ratings and reported completion. It does not support a claim that the building achieved a measured post-occupancy improvement in employee health, energy use, water consumption or biodiversity. Those outcomes would require operational data not provided by the cited project sources.

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