The residents of Howlett Street, Kensington, gave the common area of their apartment building a green makeover, including tree planting, a green wall, a biodiversity garden and veggie patches.
The Howlett Street complex consists of 45 apartments. It has an outdoor common area running through the centre of the property, providing a publicly accessible connection from Smithfield Road to Howlett Street.
Prior to this project, the area had some small garden beds and a large river red gum. The property frequently encountered flooding issues. Due to the lack of attractive communal spaces, residents didn’t often interact with their neighbours or use their outdoor space.
The Urban Forest Fund grants program provided an opportunity for residents to create a more inviting common area. Coming from a diverse background of owners and renters, families and singles and different generations, residents saw the range of benefits that would come from investing in a greener space.
'We had just started a community garden club which was really popular, and this grant seemed like the perfect opportunity to expand on the community benefits that we were seeing from that project. We wanted to bring our community together and create an attractive and unique space that we could all benefit from.'
- Milla Mihailova, Howlett Street Resident
The Greening Howlett Street project includes:
The total cost for the project was approximately $200,000, with $100,000 provided by the Urban Forest Fund. This project cost includes:
The green infrastructure improvements from the Greening Howlett Street project aim to provide the following benefits:
Each green infrastructure project is different and requires a unique approach, but Howlett Street residents came together to turn their project ideas into a reality through the following steps:
'My partner and I heard about the Urban Forest Fund on social media and even though I thought it was a long shot I just decided to go for it. I created a draft of the project and brought it up in our body corporate meeting. We were all really excited about the possibilities and hired a landscape architect to create structural plans as well as inspiring visuals for our application.'
The Greening Howlett Street project was completed in late 2018 and is currently in the establishment phase. The project area is publicly accessible so you can visit and check it out for yourself.
Head to 8 – 32 Howlett Street, Kensington. Greening is located throughout the walkway areas on the property, accessible by heading up the stairs on the Howlett Street side, or down the stairs on the Smithfield Road side.
The City of Melbourne respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land we govern, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong / Boon Wurrung peoples of the Kulin and pays respect to their Elders past and present. We acknowledge and honour the unbroken spiritual, cultural and political connection they have maintained to this unique place for more than 2000 generations.
We accept the invitation in the Uluru Statement from the Heart and are committed to walking together to build a better future.