Five facts about Parkville Station to mark construction completion

Parkville Station – the second of five new stations making up the forthcoming Metro Tunnel in Melbourne, Australia – is now complete and ready for testing ahead of the underground rail line’s grand opening in 2025. To mark its construction completion, here are five facts about the design of this new landmark station for the city: 

1. Parkville Station is conceptualised as a street beneath a street – a subterranean reflection of the new ‘boulevard’ above, providing places to meet and interact.

2. A central design feature is a 54-metre-long glass and steel canopy which, together with skylights, draws natural light into the station concourse.

3. You can see the sky from the platform which is 25m below ground.

4. The station has some of the tallest uninterrupted concrete columns on the entire metro project, where one column is an impressive 21m high - the equivalent of a seven-storey building.

5. Artist Patricia Piccinni has created Vernal Glade – an expansive field of handmade tiles located on the entrance wall that responds to the precinct’s identity as a place of medicine, healing and learning.

In addition to the new station, a grand promenade and biodiversity corridor along Melbourne’s Grattan Street has been created to complement the city’s vibrant health and education quarter – a place of exploration and ideas. The generous streetscape design connects the station with the many tram, bus, cycling and walking routes, creating a gateway to The University of Melbourne and hospitals.

The design for the Metro Tunnel is a world-class collaboration between leading design practices Hassell, Weston Williamson + Partners and RSHP.