Why I am not excited about the development of Larundel
…And it’s not because I’m losing another great urbex location (have to let them go eventually).
Earthworks have just begun on Larundel Psychiatric hospital, after many years of basically nothing happening at all.
Clearly a lot of thought went into just what it is that Melbourne needs, because – unpredictably of course – the site is being turned into a bunch of shops and units.
Because Melbourne doesn’t have enough of those and we need another fucking Safeway.
I mentioned this a couple of months ago, and it isn’t breaking news or anything, but it still makes me annoyed and I still react with a little disbelief (though not too much) when I read another news article about it.
Melbourne is in need of hospitals, clinics, aged care facilities, mental health facilities; you know, things that generally help the sick, vulnerable and less-fortunate in our community. We don’t have enough of these services as it is; not sure how it makes sense to stick another “retail hub” in the place of this former mental hospital.
And “…the Deal project would bring more diverse housing to Bundoora”? What?
This building: "developed" or "demolished"? Place your bets. (June 2011)
I wait with great anticipation to see what their interpretation of “developed” is when it comes to “developing” the “heritage buildings”. I don’t believe these buildings are formally Heritage listed (at least I can’t find any documentation of this), and even if they are, Heritage listing doesn’t do much to protect buildings in this state these days anyway.
Excuse the sarcasm.
/end.rant
x Kitten of Doom
Kitten of Doom 
looks like a beautiful building from the outside, what a shame, those “arrow” windows looks amazing
For sure… old photographs of Larundel (and Mont Park) show them to be stunning buildings. I wish beautiful architecture like this was still created today.
Those pictures are not an accurate representation of what they stand as today. The buildings today have been terribly vandalised and are in extremely poor condition. From what i know the development that is proposed will combine a strong sense of community and more of a social ‘hub’ for neighbouring estates and La Trobe University.
Obviously the council or government didn’t care enough to maintain Larundel, so i think it will end up being a great site, with lots to offer and encourage out-of-city living!
The council/government/building owners don’t ever seem to care enough to maintain anything, do they? Disappointing.
It really is a nice building, it will be sad if they do demolish it and the other buildings around it.
Its strange that nobody seems interested in these buildings, yet they heritage list some really boring buildings that really dont deserve to be.
Its hard to find any photos of this place before it was abandoned.