A 12-storey Swanston Street building will become a giant night-time animated billboard as Melbourne wages a losing fight against a swathe of controversial new advertising hoardings in the city’s streets.

The mega-sized 305 square metre display will light up the white-painted wall of the CGI Business Centre at 231 Swanston Street from dusk to dawn and be visible by pedestrians and drivers as far away as Carlton.

The City of Melbourne maintains the giant billboard will add “visual clutter” to the city’s streets, already under siege from a deluge of new hoardings.

A mega-sized 305 square metre display will light up the white-painted wall of the CGI Business Centre at 231 Swanston Street. Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

"The proliferation of super-sized high-resolution digital billboards beaming high rotation advertisements into the public realm are creating an unprecedented level of visual clutter that detracts from our city streets,” planning portfolio chair Nicholas Reece said.