The City Square is a pedestrian plaza located in the Central Business District of Melbourne, Australia. The square is currently bounded by Swanston Street, Collins Street, Flinders Lane and the Westin Hotel. Melbourne Town Hall (1870) and St Paul’s Cathedral (1891) are prominent landmarks to the north and south respectively. The square has been redeveloped several times and associated with a number of controversies over the years. In 1976, an architectural competition was launched by Melbourne City Council to design a permanent square which was won by Denton Corker Marshall architects. The design, responding to the complex brief, included a giant video screen, restaurants, shops and outdoor cafes, connected by a glazed canopy, a sunken amphitheatre, graffiti wall, reflecting pool, water wall and cascades as well as the open area of the main square. The area was extensively paved with sawn bluestone. The Burke and Wills Statue (1864) by Charles Summers was positioned (somewhat ironically) next to the cascades.

Following its opening by Queen Elizabeth II on May 28, 1980 the new square attracted criticism from the general public. The Melbourne Age newspaper reported "in interviews with newspaper reporters and on talk-back radio, many Melburnians have blasted their long awaited City Square for what they see as its bareness, the noise from its controversial video matrix screen and the starkness of the glazed steel canopy running along the Regent Theatre Wall". A large yellow steel sculpture titled “Vault” by Ron Robertson-Swann (dubbed the "Yellow Peril") which was commissioned as a centrepiece for the square was relocated to Batman Park after a few months, following heated public debate. (Source: Wikipedia) Date 23 April 2010, 06:27 Source City Square, Melbourne Australia Author Rexness