Designed by BVN Architects and completed in February 2016, 480 Queen Street established a new office building typology for Brisbane’s CBD – the ‘campus tower’
The 4,144-square-metre site provided a large parcel that was superbly located and could support a large-scale premium office development totaling 55,663 m2 of Net Lettable Area (NLA).
The space included 19 stories of tower office accommodation (30,000 m2 NLA), 10 stories of campus style low-rise office accommodation (25,000 m2 NLA), 5 levels of retail space and servicing areas (2,000 m2 NLA), and 270 basement car parking spaces.
Project value was AUD590 million and Grocon managed the build.
The site’s unique property shape and sloping terrain – it falls from Adelaide Street to Queen Street – are features that influence the building’s cross-section and distribution of building volume.
The project’s design delivered meaningful public benefit through the provision of the publicly accessible pedestrian street and an elevated park that aligns with the St John’s Cathedral ground plane across Adelaide Street, connecting Cathedral and river.
The park was Australia’s first elevated park, with 24/7 public access.
This large-scale green space adds to the identity of the sub-tropical region in a genuine and contemporary manner; an elevated, verdant landscape that references the historic terrain that was the foreground to the cathedral.
Lat 27 were the landscape architects.
Lower forms utilize the metaphor of stacked art and polished stone, producing a building character that suits the demands of contemporary office accommodation.
Elevations to the cathedral and river sides are emphasized by revealing coloured, jewel-like surfaces behind the ‘cut’ glass surface.
These cut facade’s portions form a contextually appropriate backdrop to St John’s Cathedral and a unique, contemporary, and iconic building within the city’s skyline.
The project has received many prestigious awards including the Urban Design Institute of Australia’s Best Commercial Development (Qld) in 2016 and their Presidents Award for Best Overall Development in Queensland in 2016.
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