Hotham Mountain, Victoria Province, Australia

This is one of two projects JWT has provided design and planning services for in Australia (The other one is Hotham’s sister resort Falss Creek). Hotham is a very famous Australian Mountain Resort located in the great Victoria Alps, with its village being uniquely located at the top of the mountain rather than the base. The resort had struggled with expansion for many years because the main access road The Great Alpine Highway  travels straight through the resort (which is also a mountain pass sitting  at 1,900 meters above sea level near Diner Plain).  The owner’s vision was to relocate the highway on the backside of the village as an elevated roadway located on top of three levels of parking. This frees up the interior zone of the village to be infilled with new and more regionally sensitive architecture that helps create a pedestrian friendly and climate protected village core. The architecture proposed is inspired by the great contemporary architecture frequently being realized by skilled Australian architects. This resort master plan envisions a variety of new accommodations, shops, plaza, courtyards and walkways while offering exceptional views of the snow gun forest below. This project is a unique blend of civil infrastructure, highway design and resort master planning and resort architecture.