National award delivers fruits of specialist contractor’s labour

The revitalisation of the heritage Fruit & Produce Exchange in the heart of Brisbane saw Arden Architectural named National Specialist Contractor of the Year at the Master Builders National Excellence in Building & Construction Awards.

The talented team designed and constructed the feature stairs and balustrades for the iconic, high-tech ‘80 Ann Street’ building amid the emerging north quarter of the city.

Dubbed ‘Heritage Lanes,’ the address is touted as one of Australia’s smartest buildings, embracing leading technology, sustainability and design, housing 7,000 staff across 35 stunning levels of commercial office space anchored by Suncorp and KPMG. In a nod to the quintessential Queenslander, its design provides several breathable spaces throughout to capitalise on the sub-tropical climate, including elevated verandahs overlooking lush gardens, and even a set of back stairs.

In his award entry, Director of Arden Architectural, Scott Nicholas said the team had worked closely with the building’s designers to create the staircase concepts of both the Heritage Lanes external ‘hero stairs,’ and the Suncorp internal feature stairs.

“Internally we partnered with Hassell Architects to design, develop and deliver 15 flights of stairs in four of the triple stackers and three of the single flights,” Scott said.

“On the outside, we created the five-level ‘hero stairs’ comprising two individual stair stacks of two and three levels externally connecting Levels GL to L5.”

The Suncorp stairs installation was complex. It evolved from a basis of modular construction where the team built the stairs from several factory-fabricated segments, which were tower craned onto the Prestons, rolled into position at the base of each tower, and hoisted by a custom-designed and -made jib crane erected at the top of each stack.

“The process took about seven days, plus 10 days to weld out each triple stack tower… with several weeks of finishing work required after that to fare, paint, fit timber tread finishes, nosings and tactile, install the curved brass handrails and the LED lighting. The resulting seamless finish impresses all,” Scott said.

The ‘Hero Stairs’ were a different beast.

“Each staircase was supplied in two factoryfabricated and sprayed sections finished in a metallic gold two-pack painted finish. These were shifted into position with a mobile crane at the base of the stack and raised into location by our large, custom-designed, and fabricated overhead gantry cranes,” Scott said.

“It took four hoists to safely install each level of stairs. Onsite installation was less than half and the result is spectacular.” 