Nonetheless, Apple Fed Square is also committed to providing an engaged program of events, debates, discussions and forums. Yes, they will sell products – phones, laptops, tablets and all other electronics. Apple’s proposal to locate one of its limited global flagship or concept stores at Fed Square is not just another store. Some have agreed with the principle of commercial entities operating at Fed Square – but just not Apple. My assessment is that under all past and currently proposed scenarios, the replacement of this one part of the original design is acceptable. Even the current tenancy of the Koori Heritage Trust is compromised by the lay-out of the building. There have been numerous iterations of tenants and occupation, none overly successful. The Yarra Building has remained problematic in its utilization. Though it could sometimes be seen as overseas interlopers decimating the local bookstore market, we could imagine Borders as a multi-storied bookshop, complete with café and lecture spaces. In 1997–98, we thought that something like a Borders bookstore would be a great tenant. The Yarra Building provided a massing to suit our urban design aspirations and extended the fractal façade language, but was a building that didn’t have a tenant. To now suggest that we need to eliminate commercial aspects at Fed Square is to suggest that the original architectural ideas were improper. If Fed Square has been successful as a public and civic space, it has done so as a consequence of a design ethos that embraced the multi-faceted intertwining of the civic, the cultural and the commercial. Melbourne’s Arts Precinct (Southbank), the South Bank of Brisbane, the South Bank of London and Lincoln Centre in NYC are all exemplars of what happens when the vibrant messiness of city life is seen as too compromised to be part of a cultural and artistic experience, leading to sterile and vacuous public domains. The design of public space in the 20 th century is replete with failures, where a monoculture of arts facilities creates an enclave of worthy aspirations, but poor civic design.
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