Melbourne East Police Station

Melbourne East Police Station is located in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD on Bourke St. An existing retail tenancy and two levels of office space were refurbished to provide accommodation for Melbourne East Police Station’s 250 staff. The ground floor retail tenancy was heavily refurbished to create the new police station “shop front” including a public foyer, reception counter, watch-house, interview rooms, breathalysing room and a custody area. Melbourne East’s public counter is the busiest in Victoria. The design for the public counter has been shifted away from more traditional public counters and offers a more open and welcoming public interface akin to a shopfront whilst maintaining requisite high security treatments and robust materials. Behind the reception counter a large mural depicting Melbourne police officers was created by Melbourne paste-up artist Baby Guerrilla. Set on the two levels above the public frontage, an extensive refurbishment of 4,500 m2 of office accommodation provided Victoria Police with an opportunity to create a state-of-the-art facility including a training hub, media and council briefing centre, conference rooms, equipment stores, an extensive lost property area, and staff amenities including a mess, gym, and respite spaces. The existing building started life in the 1960s as the Walton’s department store. The existing weathered concrete slabs and steel roof trusses were left exposed, to provide a high-ceilinged open office.