History
Known originally as the Olympic Pool, it was built as an indoor sporting arena for diving, swimming, water polo, and the swimming part of the modern pentathlon events for the 1956 Summer Olympics. It was the first fully indoor Olympic swimming venue in an Olympic Games and is the only major stadium structure from the 1956 Olympic Games with the facade intact. It is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register. The design of this building was the winner of one of three international competitions held in 1952 to provide stadia for the 1956 Olympic Games. Architects Kevin Borland, Peter McIntyre, John and Phyllis Murphy and their engineer Bill Irwin won the only one of these competitions to be consummated. Construction by McDougall & Ireland, one of Melbourne's then largest construction companies, began in October 1954 and was completed in 1956, just prior to the commencement of the Melbourne Olympic Games.
After redevelopment in the 1980s, the venue became the Melbourne Sports and Entertainment Centre and later The Glass House. It hosted home games for the National Basketball League's North Melbourne Giants, as well as the Melbourne Tigers, Eastside Spectres and Westside Saints. The arena, which had a capacity of 7,200 people, was also used as a concert venue.
Read more about this topic: Melbourne Sports And Entertainment Centre
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