The Vault
Location
Wurundjeri Country
Melbourne VIC, Australia
Client
Melbourne City Council
Significance
Local Significance
Completed
2002
Services Provided
Heritage Advice
Awards
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The Vault was designed by sculptor Ron Robertson-Swann as the centrepiece for the City Square, established in Melbourne’s CBD in the 1980s.
The sculpture quickly became better known by the less than flattering nickname the ‘Yellow Peril’, due to a media-driven smear campaign, and was unceremoniously dumped in Batman Park on the banks of the Yarra. Architects Wood Marsh later embraced this unloved artwork as the design inspiration for their Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.
Melbourne City Council commissioned RBA to project manage the Vault’s deconstruction, repair, relocation and reconstruction in its current location in the ACCA forecourt, in collaboration with Robertson-Swann.
