The Yardmaster's Building

RESEARCH BACKGROUND: The Yardmaster's Building by McBride Charles Ryan (MCR) is a four-storey, multi-use facility for workers and operations associated with the Southern Cross Rail Yard. Viewed in the round, it offers itself back to the city as an exquisite, mysterious box: a jewel in the junk-heap. RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION: The project involved extensive consultation with representatives of the diverse users, their respective union representatives, and management and associated authorities. Although the building is visible from various vantages, it is inaccessible to the public - and it is this inaccessibility that has poetically informed the design elements. As it ages, the patina of the facade expresses its environment, as if it had always been there or simply emerged from the ground. In providing interest and delight to the rail experience, and in confidently presenting itself as a 'public' entity, this 'Southern Crustacean' is a building that says that public infrastructure matters and, by extension, that the public matter. MCR treated the building as a new monument to the city. This work demonstrates MCR's ongoing practice of creating expressive architecture with civic narratives, connecting the community with its urban context. RESEARCH SIGNIFICANCE: This project received the 2013 Architizer A+ Jury Awards (Transportation: Bus & Train Station): an international awards program hosted by Architizer.com, the world's largest online community of architects. The 2013 Awards were celebrated in New York City as part of NYCxDesign week. Yardmaster's Building previously won the Award for Public Architecture (New) at the 2010 Australian Institute of Architects Victorian Chapter Awards. It has been published extensively in professional architecture and design media outlets: Architecture Australia, Archdaily, Architizer, Architectism, Archiii, Arch2o and designboom.