The United States Studies Centre occupies part of the John Woolley Building at the University of Sydney.
The brief for fjmt was to establish a visible and prominent presence for the centre within the Camperdown campus of the university. It did this by taking a disused portion of the heritage building and transforming it to accommodate the initial development and included the reception, administration offices and associated landscape setting.
The heritage nature of the building created opportunities and constraints. fjmt removed unsympathetic additions and infilled elements to uncover the original building fabric. “New built forms were carefully designed to be inserted within the reinstated original volumes, creating a contrast between the old and new materials, finishes and architecture,” Jeff Morehen says.
“The main challenge was ensuring the successful integration of the contem- porary accommodation and use of the spaces within the heritage context. This was developed through an extensive study of the historical features and uses of the building in conjunction with an understanding of the client’s brief.”
Substantial original features retained included corrugated sheet ceiling and uncovering the steel structure in the open plan areas, uncovering the timber ceiling framing to the reception area, the reuse of door frames and leafs and the conservation of small features, such as cutouts in brickwork from an original internal stair and mechanical equipment.
New pods accommodated offices and a boardroom, which were designed to ensure the interpretation of the heritage fabric and spatial volumes were realised, and were detailed with frameless glazed entries and canopies.
A limited budget played a role in the selection of finishes, with emphasis given to superior finishes on key joinery items. American veneers and furniture by US designers also linked it in the Australian context.
Toughened glass was extensively used in the project, which resulted in a change of specification to other building elements. Frameless, toughened glass doors were originally intended for the main entry. This became a problem once it was realised the University’s electronic security requirements could not be adequately provided with these doors.
“The decision was made to use steel frame glazed doors instead,” Thomas Ho says. “Another issue related to the toughened glass was the selection of door handles for the internal toughened glass sliding doors. The only suitable handles for these doors were not available in Australia and had to be sourced from Germany. Early detection of this issue meant that it did not have any impact on project completion.”
The fitout implemented sustainable concepts and technologies to achieve the brief requirements. The main environmental feature was the custom designed multi-service beam, which combines chilled beam technology with power/data reticulation, lighting, EWIS and emergency lighting.
fjmt specified chilled beams due to limited service penetration to the heritage ceiling and the security requirements advising against an open window ventilation system. The system was designed by fjmt and Steensen Varming, and used perforated ceiling panels to form a service enclosure to accommodate the chilled beams. All materials at the project were also specified to Green Star credits.
Intrec Management and fjmt established a collaborative regime early on and provided the framework for working through any issues in a practical and timely manner, such as round table forums with the project manager, architect, consultants and engineers.
“On a number of occasions we had the situation where demolition or excavation uncovered a latent condition, which had a potential compounding affect on other building elements. It was on these occasions that we relied heavily on Janine [at fjmt] to develop a solution,” Ho says.
“Probably the most important lesson to come out of this project is that you can never be certain of what to expect when you are attempting to adapt a heritage building into a modern office facility. But so long as the whole team shares the same vision and goals and takes a collaborative approach to resolving issues, the end result can be a unique and positive outcome.”
Stephanie McDonald
