In February 1997 the Melbourne Exhibition Centre and the Melbourne Convention Centre became one entity – the ‘MECC’. To complete the integration of these two venues, the MECC commissioned a new covered footbridge spanning the Yarra and significant enhancements to the façade and lobby of the Melbourne Convention Centre. In the process, a new public promenade has been added to an already lively river precinct containing the Casino, Batman Park, and the Exhibition and Convention complex.

The new footbridge creates an interesting urban conjunction, for it sits parallel with the existing Spencer Street road bridge, interlinking at the one third span points. As an adjunct structure, the Footbridge traces the same profile as the road bridge. A semi-enclosed glass and steel upper structure provides shelter from the wind and rain, as part of the cross river promenade. Central to the Footbridge is a large, transparent raking glass wall, which leans a shoulder into the prevailing wind. Views along the river corridor are framed by the superstructure, which sits like a sculptural curtain, hovering on the horizon line. Artist, James Clayden has used the glass wall as a canvas. His snail-trail-like markings meander across the glass. They delicately trace out linear patterns loosely based upon perspectival sketches from the renaissance period. This subtle patterning adds a spatial dimension to the walking journey, for the lines coincide with distance objects, horizons and various vanishing points.

The footbridge is both public and urban in its form and manners. Its exaggerated ribbed skeletal form cuts a striking river and sky profile, for as object, this could be the upturned hull of an unfinished boat, or the skeletal backbone of some ancient marine creature.