CARTERS Commercial Project Award Results

H T M L Code
National Category Winner: CARTERS Commercial

Project: The B:Hive (Smales Farm Building 5)

Entrant

Leighs Construction Limited

Project Partners

BGT Structures Ltd (Engineer), eCubed (Engineer), Holmes Fire (Fire Engineer), Jasmax (Architect/Designer), Leighs Construction Limited (Construction Company), TSA Management Limited (Client Project Manager - Xigo), Whites Associates Limited (Client Quantity Surveyor), WSP (Engineer)

The B:Hive is a state of the art office building with a shared working environment suited for businesses with one to 250 employees. Providing short-term leasing options over five floors the building uses an adjustable partitioning system to accommodate the changing needs of tenants. Standout features are the central atrium with a curved timber balustrade, skylight and striking orange spiral staircase. These key construction details were challenging and required a high level of coordination. Using innovative and flexible infrastructures, the building showcases environmentally sustainable architecture – saving on energy and operating costs.

Judges comments

The way the entire team worked collaboratively together to overcome the project’s challenges was impressive. The largest challenges were setting out and creating the curved shaped atrium space, the formation of the timber balustrading and finding a skilled contractor to construct the spiral feature stair. Health and safety played an important part in the success of this project, where 450,000 man-hours were worked to complete the project, and the team didn’t incur any ‘lost time injuries’, as the people who ‘created the risk owned the risk’. The main contractor secured the project on an ECI Contract Base and had an important part to play in ensuring build ability was taken into account in the design as the developed and detailed project evolved. The end result was a high quality, flexible, modern office building, which provides commercial space for over 850 people over 100 different tenancies. This is truly a ‘modern commercial building’ and is a credit to all involved. It ensures the owner is able to achieve their ‘development vision’ of creating a modern, flexible, urban community office space, which helps to de-risk the future leasing exposure on such a development.

 

Project: Bowen State Building and NZ Defence House fitout (2)

Entrant

LT McGuinness

Project Partners

Aecom (Engineer), Holmes Consulting LP (Engineer), LT McGuinness Ltd (Construction Company), NDY (Norman Disney & Young) (Engineer), Planet Design (Architect/Designer), RCP (Project manager), TSA Management (Project manager), Warren and Mahoney (Architect/Designer)

Owned By

NZ Defence Force
Precinct Properties

The Bowen State Building is the nerve centre of the country’s security and defence systems. The project involved the 10-level building being demolished back to a concrete shell as well as a seismic upgrade. Four new board piles were required to hold and anchor two new 10-storey shear walls. In a technique untested before in Wellington on this scale, the four belled piles were linked as two sets by two massive transfer beams. The first six floors were also extended to the north and east in an annexe to provide a spaciousness not enjoyed by other high rises in Wellington’s downtown. The project took just under three years to complete.

 

Project: Airways Air Traffic Control Facility

Entrant

NZ Strong Group Ltd

Project Partners

eCubed (Engineer), Protech Design (Fire Protection consultant), Rider Levett Bucknall (Client Quantity Surveyor), RTA Studio (Architect/Designer), Tonkin + Taylor (Engineer), TSA Management (Project Manager)

Owned By

Airways New Zealand
Auckland International Airport Limited

This project involved the design and construction of an air traffic control facility, built for Airways. The building is located on a brown field site, outside of Auckland International Airport’s ‘airside’ operations and is part of their wider urban development scheme. The building has a high architectural finish to reflect this, including a New Zealand first – mirror-finished aluminium composite cladding. One challenge was the technical aspect of the building having multiple functions. These included a data centre, above-ground bunker with the capacity to run a 24/7 operation through multiple emergency scenarios and a daily workplace. Engaging with Airway’s brief with all parties involved during the project lifecycle was key to the success of this project.

 

Project: The Rooftop

Entrant

SJR Builders

Project Partners

BCD Group (Engineer), Edwards White Architects Ltd (Architect/Designer), Stark Property (Owner)

The Rooftop is the final piece in the puzzle to complete The Riverbanks refurbishment. Adding a floor onto the top of any building presents the challenge of re-evaluating the building’s form and proportion. The construction team had to monitor and coordinate all of the sub trades involved to ensure they were mindful of the neighbouring residents and aware of the timing restrictions for working and receiving deliveries. The standout feature of the project was the cohesive look of the fifth floor with the existing building. It looked as if it had been there forever by successfully merging the old and the new with the other four levels of the building.