The Valley Racecourse is set for a $2-billion transformation, according to new plans from Moonee Valley Racing Club (MVRC).

At the heart of the Melbourne horse-racing track project will be a multi-purpose grandstand designed by COX Architecture. This state-of-the-art facility will become the focal point of a broader 40-hectare, community-focused redevelopment.

“For this project we were challenged to reconcile competing and seemingly opposing objectives; to create an exceptional, singular racing destination which would also provide for a more diverse range of audiences and an expanded array of facilities and platforms,” states COX in a design statement.

The architects say the grandstand “embraces the purity of the racing experience by providing more, better and closer trackside engagement than any other track in Australia”.

Beyond the grandstand, the project – dubbed the Valley of Tomorrow – intends to rejuvenate the racecourse’s infield area, providing community, business, recreation and leisure facilities, along with a residential precinct. As COX states, they recognise that “the new stand and track do not exist in isolation, [and] that they are interwoven in the history, landscape and most important, the community of this unique suburb of Melbourne”.

Despite the size of the project, MVRC says that the Valley of Tomorrow will retain the “unique, intimate atmosphere of [the] famed ‘racing amphitheatre’”.

The construction of the grandstand and reconfiguration of the racecourse is due to commence after the 100^th Cox Plate – an annual race event – in 2020.

Images: Supplied

Nicholas Rider

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