And he should know. Professor of Architecture at RMIT University, van Schaik has been responsible for driving a dynamic culture of architectural innovation that has resulted in some extraordinary contemporary buildings in Melbourne.

One of the speakers as the recent Transforming Canberra's CBD forum, which explored how we can breathe new life into our tired city centre, van Schaik argued that our challenge is to create an "authentic Canberra" through our own architecture.

We have many beautiful buildings in Canberra – from the art deco charm of Old Parliament House to the fan-shaped visitor's centre at the National Arboretum, and from the imposing brutalism of the High Court and the Byzantine-inspired colonnades of the Australian War Memorial.

But none of these buildings are found in our city centre.

Two beautiful old buildings may help revitalise Civic – and those are the Sydney and Melbourne buildings. Recent polling by KREAB Research found Canberrans want to see these grand old ladies given a facelift.

The Sydney and Melbourne buildings were once the gateway to our city centre which told visitors "you've arrived". Today, much of the area around these historic buildings is in a depressingly dilapidated state – and urgent, targeted investment is required to restore and reactivate them.

Professor van Schaik argued that we can "ennoble" these old masters and then add "something uncompromisingly of the moment" to serve the needs of current life.

To do that, we may need to revise our regulations to ensure entrepreneurs are able to convert laneways and courtyards into "tightly framed urban spaces" that inject personality into long-forgotten spaces.

For van Schaik, our great opportunity is to take the "bush capital" as the "centre of authenticity" and not continue to import ideas "on graph paper than could be built anywhere on earth".

This will take vision from industry, from government and from all of us.

Catherine Carter is ACT executive director of the Property Council of Australia.