On St Kilda Road, directly opposite the Shrine of Remembrance, an 84-metre glulam diagrid now crowns Anzac Station, the only platform-to-platform train-tram interchange on Melbourne’s Metro Tunnel and an underground station forecast to move 14,500 passengers every peak. Designed by HASSELL with Weston Williamson + Partners and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners as a pavilion in the park, the canopy marks a first for Melbourne and possibly Australia, a major rail station with its main entry on the tram platform, its exposed timber softening what would otherwise read as conventional engineered transport infrastructure.
The entire curved-glulam, cross-laminated timber, and structural connection package was supplied by HESS TIMBER, the Kleinheubach-based specialist within the HASSLACHER group, delivering more than 350 cubic metres of curved and straight glulam beams, alongside structural CLT soffit panels and connection systems holding the diagrid above one of Melbourne’s busiest road and tram corridors. “We are pleased to have been able to work with CYP Design and Construction on this project,” HESS TIMBER said in its project release, with structural engineering led by HESS TIMBER and Arup and construction delivered by Cross Yarra Partnership for the Victorian Infrastructure Delivery Authority.
The 84-metre by 20-metre canopy, parametrically modelled in Rhinoceros, is built from 13 glulam cross beams weighing up to 4,500 kilograms each, with 164 diagonal glulam sections forming the intersecting framework that gives the canopy its silhouette and 190 uniquely shaped CLT panels, produced at the group’s NORITEC facility at Stall im Molltal in Austria, lining the underside. Twelve skylights are set along the central spine, and the longest curved beams were shipped as 20-metre segments, with the diagrid geometry replacing conventional repetitive framing with a structurally efficient form that doubles as the station’s defining architectural gesture.
From Kleinheubach to St Kilda Road
The beams were milled full length at Kleinheubach in Germany and Hermagor in Austria, shipped on break-bulk RoRo vessels and delivered to site on piloted truck transports, before being craned over St Kilda Road from 2022 onwards. The hybrid arrangement uses steel for the supporting columns, main spine beams and perimeter ring beam, with mass timber carrying the lightweight, low-carbon roof, the whole canopy resting on twelve green steel columns rising up to 16 metres from within the station box itself so the timber sits clear of the underground concourse.
Anzac Station opened to passengers on 30 November 2025 alongside the wider Metro Tunnel, with more than 70,000 people moving through the network on opening day and around 13,000 passing through Anzac before full timetabled services launched on 1 February 2026. The station serves the Royal Botanic Gardens, the St Kilda Road office precinct and Melbourne Grammar School, with the Shrine of Remembrance directly opposite the canopy entrance shaping the biophilic design behind the exposed timber soffit and its 12-skylight central spine, easing pressure on what Public Transport Victoria has identified as the busiest tram corridor in the world.
Anzac Station shows what timber can carry at the scale of major public infrastructure, an underground station whose architectural identity now rests on 350 cubic metres of glulam and CLT. We celebrate timber projects of every scale, from landmark transport infrastructure like this one through to family homes, and we would love to see yours among them. Entries for the 2026 Awards are open now and close on Friday 10 July. To enter your project, visit timberdesignawards.com.au/how-to-enter/.