ABSTRACT
Waterfront housing, however, was difficult to get started; in both the Riverside Quay and SouthGate projects the housing component was delayed or abandoned. While the Yarra bank waterfront to the west was initially intended for housing, this plan was replaced by the Casino. The only housing that was developed by the early 1990s emerged in the most southern section of Southbank, well away from the river. Most of this housing was undertaken by developers Central Equity who led the market for inexpensive apartment living with a formularised adoption of tiltslab construction techniques. The first such schemes in Southbank were two-to four-storey perimeter blocks in neo-Georgian style with a gym and swimming pool in the central courtyard. The quality of this housing in both urban design and architectural terms was very poor. While there was an attempt to produce active frontages on major streets, these projects were also subject to the proliferation of blank walls and car parks that the urban design guidelines had tried to control.
