International Students Bring New Life To Melbourne Street

It's been almost 20 years since Melbourne City Council first started planning ways to revitalise Swanston Street, and 10 since it became a semi-closed walk. More recently the area has become the focus of the city's South-East Asian student population, and the street is now the CBD's liveliest eating area. The international student population is driving much of the development in the CBD now. "We didn't plan for any particular flavour," says Melbourne City Council's director of city projects, Rob Adams, who has overseen the street's transformation since the mid-1980s. "One of the great things about cities is their unpredictability — you cannot provide the control over the retail mix, nor would you want to."

Thanks to Zvi Leve