Brisbane, Queensland
The Otto Hirschfeld Building at the University of Queensland is used predominantly as a teaching and research facility in anatomical sciences. The project team completely refurbished the existing 60-year-old, 8-level building for the Faculty of Medicine. The project involved the complete demolition and refurbishment of the Dissection Laboratories and the Cadaver Preparation Facilities, and included construction of new Cold room and Freezer facilities, laboratories on Level 5 and 6 and the replacement of antiquated electrical and mechanical services.
FEATURES:
Some of the technically demanding construction aspects of the project included:
- providing new service risers and removing superseded electrical, mechanical and hydraulic services
- extending the existing basement plant room in rock, to accommodate the air scrubbers for the new air conditioning system
- constructing a new eight-level fire stair to meet new Building Code of Australia requirements
- undertaking a staged refurbishment of the new state-of-the-art teaching labs on Levels 5 and 6
- upgrading the services to accommodate new IT, communication and data links throughout the building.
BENEFITS:
The Otto Hirshfeld Building remained on line for teaching for the duration of the project. Not a single teaching hour was lost despite the delicate and largely unknown condition of the services. The project team's ability to ensure long-term research projects that were being undertaken were maintained and not disturbed during the extensive refurbishment works was of major benefit to the Faculty of Medicine.
CLIENT: University of Queensland
Awards
- 2001 MBA Brisbane Region Award for Renovation & Refurbishment $1-$10m
