The Treasury Building, a 33-level office development in the Perth CBD, is drawing attention as it nears completion. The building is a highlight on the Perth sky-line, exemplifying the perfect mix of preserving the historic nature of the adjoining site, whilst allowing for a modern design.
As an engineering project the Treasury Building development offered some unusual technical challenges to Wood & Grieve Engineers, who provided Mirvac with structural design and construction-phase services.
“The Treasury Precinct is a historically important site, which necessitated selecting construction forms which took into consideration the sensitivity of the surrounding heritage buildings” explained Eric Le Meur, Wood & Grieve Senior Structural Project Engineer.
“The site was previously occupied by a 1960s multi-storey building and the foundation remnants prevented us from using conventional forms of boundary retention methods. Our solution was to make use of the original basement walls to temporarily support the adjoining Perth Town Hall and the old Treasury Building.”
Part of the basement works included the construction of a vehicular access tunnel under the Old Heritage Building to link the Tower basement car-park to the existing Law-Chamber car-park. This tunnel was constructed using a top-down construction method working within the ground-floor confines of the Old Heritage Building.
Interesting structural engineering components at the Treasury building included:
The highly tailored structural approach on this project allowed preservation of historic adjoining buildings whilst supporting a modern, progressive commercial development.
Challenging and complex projects are met with enthusiasm by the WGE structural team, who have capability and expertise across a diverse range of projects including high and low rise residential, office, retail, hospital, sports arena, industrial, education, marine, high rise and civic structures. Projects of this scale further consolidate WGE’s experience in high rise multi-storey developments.
“We’ve enjoyed the technical intricacies presented by the Treasury building over the last 3 years” said Mr Le Meur. “The collaborative approach with the design and construction team at Mirvac has been exemplary, and iconic projects of this scale further consolidate WGE’s experience in heritage structures, deep foundations and confined sites.”
Completion of the Treasury Building is planned for 2015.
