The William Buck Centre

The William Buck Centre

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Client
Forrester Kurts Developments

Value
$60 Million

Architect
Hassell

Client Needs
To develop a premium grade 20 level commercial office building that would set new standards in energy efficiency and ecological sustainable design in the Brisbane and Australian market.
Bassett Solution: Bassett designed the mechanical, electrical, fire and lift services, with each discipline breaking new ground in modern technological standards and energy efficiency.

Value for Client
The Hall Chadwick Centre, located at 120 Edward Street, Brisbane, was the first CBD mid-rise building development in the Brisbane CBD for almost a decade. The building is based on tangential rectangle geometry, encompassing direct diagonal access lines providing a strong entry position.

The building featured an Australian first, being a solar voltaic roof, which will generate enough "green" renewable energy to displace 77 tones of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It will be one of Australia's largest solar power projects, supplying enough power to potentially support most of the lighting and backup power.

Modelling, testing and measuring techniques were applied to the orientation of the building and the facade. The outcomes of which were a building which combined maximum site usage with best thermal performance. Thirty-five options for the facade were considered before the preferred solutions were modelled. Interestingly, the optimum performing facadee was subsequently rejected after a prototype revealed the true effect of light and glare from experience, rather than from theoretical performance.

Having taken out the Property Council of Australia's "State" Rider Hunt Award, the Hall Chadwick Centre was recently awarded the "National" Rider Hunt Award at the Property Council's National Conference on the Gold Coast.

The award acknowledges quality of design and construction, economic and financial profitability, owner and user satisfaction, operational efficiency, adaptability and environmental sustainability.