Architecture of Melbourne has given Melbourne a reputation as a city of no characterising architectural style, but rather an accumulation of buildings dating from the present back until the European settlement of Australia. The city is also home to Eureka Tower (2006), which was the tallest residential tower when measured to its highest floor for some time. Melbourne was first settled in 1835, after the discovery of fresh water in the Yarra River. The land to the north of the Yarra was considerably flat, while low-lying mountain ranges lay to the west, east and north, with small streams running through the plains of
Empire Building (Melbourne) Empire Building (Melbourne) The Empire Building was home to commercial, retail arcade with offices and showrooms over, in the city of Melbourne, Australia. It stands beside the Mutual Store building on the corner of Flinders and Degraves Streets, opposite Flinders Street station. The Empire Building and Mutual Store were redeveloped into a residential complex, completed in 2006. Originally known as the Empire Arcade, the building was designed by Nahum Barnet and constructed in 1906. It housed a variety of different uses, with a dead-end retail arcade at ground level and 'rooms' above, accommodating over the years the usual array of