image courtesy of The winning design for Flinders Street Station looking from Federation Square.

The Victorian Government has said it is unlikely to go ahead with an idea to redevelop Flinders Street Station, despite at least $1 million already having been spent on the project.

The former Coalition government commissioned a design competition to reimagine the station and put together a business case in 2011.A team of local and Swiss-based architects from HASSELL, Herzog & De Meuron was chosen as the winner from more than 100 entries in August last year. 

The firm was behind the design of London's Tate Modern gallery and the National Stadium in Beijing for the 2008 Olympic Games.The final business case had not been delivered, but the Government said the project would cost about $2 billion, and only 20 per cent of that could be funded by commercial interests.

The Yarra River Amphitheatre and Plaza image courtesy of abc.net.au

Flinders street station redesign winner:Hassell, Herzog and de Meuron's redesign idea was chosen from more than 100 entries. 

One of the six shortlisted designs for Flinders St Station:H&HdM Melbourne CBD and Flinders St image courtesy of Victoria Government 

Treasurer Tim Pallas said a decision had yet to be made on the redevelopment but it appeared to be a lot of money for little gain.

"The previous government put millions of dollars into a design competition, we were quite critical of it when we were in Opposition and we said that design competition didn't accord with the community's priorities," he said.

"It would be an inordinate burden upon taxpayers.".....Continue Reading

> via abc.net.au