The Melbourne and Sydney buildings

The Melbourne and Sydney buildings are landmarks of the commercial centre of Canberra. The buildings adopt the inter-war Mediterranean architecture style resembled by the medium-pitch roof, formal entrance, and line-up poles, among others (Duncan, Butler, McCann, & O'keefe, 2011). This style may have a particular design in the early decades of the evolution of Canberra as a capital city of Australia. In an attempt to maintain the heritage value of the buildings, The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) the uses these standard heritage criteria, known as HERCON, which is based on the review of Heritage Act in 2010:      

   

•    The cultural and natural history

•    The main characteristic of cultural or natural place and environment 

•    The contribution of cultural and natural history

•    The value for community and cultural

By implementing these heritage criteria, the Melbourne and Sydney building maintain several important heritage values comprised of the architectural style, historical association and commercial function. In addition to these rules, there are the other measures to conserve historical buildings required by the Act including:     

    

•    Develop the system registration and conservation.

•    Maintenance the guidelines to save heritage value.

•    An arrangement of public authorities to protect heritage place.

•    Having an integrated system with land planning from heritage guidelines.  

Thus, the ACT heritage council has improved the policy to maximize the value of the building and balancing the modern and historical value regarding for the function. It seems that the ACT had the concern to improve heritage place which is part of Canberra's history. In the recent development, however, the Sydney and Melbourne buildings are currently facing challenges from the addition of city bus stations around the areas.      

Bibliography

Duncan, M., Butler, G., McCann, D. J., & O'keefe, B. (2011, November). Sydney and Melbourne Buildings Conservation Management Plan.