From the architect:
699 Bourke Street was incorporated within the original design of Southern Cross Station, creating a unique commercial opportunity at the junction of Melbourne’s CBD and Docklands. A habitable deck between two bridges, the 12-storey workplace provides unprecedented connection to Melbourne’s public transport and commercial hubs, with complementary premium end-of-trip facilities comprising more than 275 bicycle racks and 360 lockers. Integrated wayfinding and signage offers the building’s inhabitants real-time information about weather and transport to facilitate their journey to and from the workplace.
Built over rail, the site required a new ground plane to be constructed, with 2m-deep concrete-filled beams that span 20m between supports. The building’s form creates a new city block, with a glazed pavilion that cantilevers off the west side of the deck identifying the entrance and negotiating the 8m rise to the lobby and new public pedestrian laneway. As a key planning initiative for the project, the laneway provides connection between Bourke Street Bridge and Collins Street. Designed in collaboration with Mirvac, PFL Spaces, Urban Art Projects, ID/Lab and Oculus, the laneway offers an activated space that may be easily adapted for future cultural programmes – a point of difference to the traditional retail podium.
The design for 699 Bourke Street delivers beyond the specification for an A Grade office and, through the incorporation of the new public walkway, offers a unique vista of the roofscape of Southern Cross Station with the city skyline as its backdrop, seeking to enhance the public realm in a quintessentially Melbourne way.
SUSTAINABILITY FEATURES
The A-Grade 6-Star Green Star rated office building that features a 90kW rooftop solar system, the largest solar power system on a commercial office in Melbourne, as well as an 80,000L rainwater catchment system. The solar system generates approximately 110,000kWh of electricity per annum, reducing the building’s greenhouse gas emissions by around 145 tonnes of C02 every year.
A high-performance glazed façade provides a distinct response to the building’s context. The north façade presents an integrated fixed-louvre screen that maintains views while preventing reflections, mitigating risk to the south-bound train drivers below. Each façade offers optimal daylight and views, with 90 percent of the office floor situated within 12m of the high-performance glazed façade.
The building also makes use of an over-rail air-rights site, eliminating the requirement for further land use or vertical development in the City of Melbourne. As such, the site called for an efficient structure whereby each element serves a highly measured function, ensuring that that no more material is used than is absolutely required.
SUPPLIERS/CONTRACTORS
Yuanda: Façade
GVP: Steel Fabrication
Fitzgerald: Concrete
Maxim Electrical: Electrical
Geschke: Hydraulic
Entire: Mechanical
Advanced Precast: Precast Concrete
Schindler: Lifts and Escalators
IBP Lamberts: Linit Glass for Lobby Specialty Cladding
