Complete» Green Square Fortitude Valley: (14F/59m/Mixed Use)

[KJBrissy]

Project Rundown

Status| Complete

Location| Fortitude Valley, Brisbane

Developer| Leighton

Height| 13F/50m

Price tag| Unknown

Completion Date| 2008

Project Site| Click here

It's good to see all of these 4.5 and 5 star green rated proposals. Lets hope they stay that way to the end.

Originally Posted by SoulvisionQ1

Site> Here
Mixed use - Urban Village, Located in the Valley.

Green Square, developed by Leighton Properties, is the largest mixed use Corporate Office Park developed in Brisbane over the last 15 years. Green Square has been designed to accommodate over 49,000m2 of A-Grade Commercial office space, High Tech Utility facilities, community facilities and a residential precinct. These buildings will surround a Pocket Park and retail plaza providing food outlets and services for staff and visitors.

The site is located within 250 metres of all public transport and a public car park. The continuation of Alfred Street provides vehicle access to the site and easy pedestrian access to Brunswick Street Railway Station and the Valley Metro Retail Centre. Access will be further enhanced by the completion of North South Bypass Tunnel.

Location:

Master Plan:

[SoulVision]

Sustainable benchmark set

Lisa Yallamas

March 19, 2007 11:00pm
Article from: The Courier-Mail

A CLEVER building that knows by the level of exhaled carbon dioxide how many people are inside and self-adjusts its air flow and air-conditioning is the first development in Queensland to achieve a Five Star Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia.
Leightons Properties' Fortitude Valley development, Green Square, is the only Australian best-practice rated development here but another 23 are on the Green Building Council of Australia's books.

The only world-class, or Six Green Star, building in Australia is The City of Melbourne's CH2 building.

Green Square design director, Tim Morgan, and Leightons' building operations manager, Greg Muir, said it took more than water-saving fittings and energy-saving light bulbs to reach a Five Star rating.

"Everyone from the design to construction must be on board," Mr Morgan said.

The old Brisbane City Council depot, on the corner of St Pauls Terrace and Constance Street, is setting "State-of-Queensland art" benchmarks for sustainable development – with asbestos removed from old depot buildings, timbers reused as plaza benches and construction framework, and 100 per cent recycling of all waste from the construction site.

Food scraps go into worm farms, building materials such as steel were reused in the new buildings and other waste was taken to a reactor that produces renewable energy – gas.

Mr Muir said when they reached Five Star standards the team started pushing for Six Stars which took them from a Four-and-a-half Star Australian Building Greenhouse Rating (AGBR) to Five-Star – reducing carbon emissions by 244.2 tonnes a year.

Yet, while Green Square scored well for things such as public transport access (178 metres from the train station), water, energy and carbon savings on the Green Building Council of Australia's green star scale, it scored zero for innovation.

Perhaps this is a sign of how far behind the game Queensland is because Green Square has some interesting aspects.

By monitoring carbon dioxide levels (people's exhalations), the Green Square buildings will guess how many people are inside to control the air-conditioning and air flow.

The use of air-cooled chillers (rather than using water-cooled chillers) will save 22.5 megalitres a year.

Additional savings from rain harvesting off the 50,000sqm roof will take water savings up to 33.8 megalitres of potable water a year – approximately 12 Olympic-sized swimming pools – that will be used for landscaping and flushing.

The water harvesting projections even include the moisture in the air that building occupants exhale and their perspiration which condenses in the air-conditioning system.

The development is a public private partnership between Leightons and the Brisbane City Council which will occupy offices in the North Tower in the mixed development which includes retail, residential and community facilities.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman said council was leading by example in being an environmentally responsible organisation.

"Brisbane Square's ecologically sustainable design includes features like maximised natural lighting, energy efficient ventilation systems and insulation," Cr Newman said.

Another 25 commercial developments in Queensland have registered with the Green Building Council for Green Star certification.

And the BCC is encouraging developers to go green by discounting their infrastructure contributions if they achieve certification.

Leightons Properties business operations manager, Greg Muir, said the cost of an environmentally sustainable development was only up to 10 per cent more than a conventional development.

But Green Building Council of Australia executive director, Suzie Guthridge, lauded the BCC incentive scheme – which could cost up to $2.6m a year in grants to developers – because it would speed up the greening process of development.

[KJBrissy]

The breathing office block

Darren Weir said the air-cooled chillers worked in a similar style to some of the new power stations. Older air conditioning systems pump chilled water through the building to supply fan-blown cooler air around the building.

"This system uses air to do the heat exchange. So it is similar to some of the very new power stations. Where the old power stations used a lot of water for heat exchange, the newer power stations, like Kogan Creek use air to do a lot of the heat exchange in the power station," he said.

"The environmental benefit of that is that they consume less water as a system, so they are more water efficient."

The building's design also makes a major contribution to saving greenhouse gas emissions.

It will conserve more than 410,000 kilowatts per year, compared with a conventional building that is built without energy efficient designs.

It reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 390 tonnes each year, achieved by carefully selecting lighting, the specially-chosen air chillers and power sources.

General waste is separated, collected and sent to a bio-reactor facility and used to generate renewable energy.

It includes 60 bike racks, plus six showers and lockers to encourage the staff to ride bikes to work. Car spaces for smaller cars are also in the design.

Project director Petie Walker said Green Square does not use solar power, with costs showing natural gas was more cost-effective with limited hot water needs.

"We did investigate it, but it didn't stack up energy-wise," she said.

Ms Walker said the materials, paints and fittings were all chosen to meet the green ratings, to avoid the "sick building syndrome," but did attract an extra cost.

She said industry had reacted very well to meeting the green star building code design needs, helping them shape a commercial side to green-conscious development.

"They have known it's coming and I think suppliers are starting to know they have to have the green side of things in order to win the work."

Darren Weir said the building would set the standard for buildings in Fortitude Valley.

"One of the things about this building is that it sets the standard for this green-star rating, in that it is the first in Queensland," he said.

Brisbane City Council will be the anchor tenant of Queensland's first state-of-the-art, purpose-built green office complex when it opens in Fortitude Valley in August.

One of the features of the new "breathing" complex allows it to regularly read the amount of "outside air" inside the building and draw in outside air as efficiently as possible to keep an energy-efficient mix.

Leighton Properties is building the five-storey $120 million Green Square South Tower on St Paul's Terrace, opposite the Jubilee Hotel. Work on the 23,000 square metre North Tower starts this year.

The Green Square South Tower development is a 17,000 square metre complex and part of a two-stage project on the corner of St Paul's Terrace and Constance Street.

Brisbane City Council has taken a 20-year lease on the site.

A five-star Green Star building rating is set by the Green Building Council of Australia (GBCA) and includes plans for the building to save energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, conserve water and recycle material on the site. This building is Queensland's first five-star Green Star building.

The "green design" guidelines include the design, the construction, and the integrated internal fit-out of the building with Brisbane City Council.

Brisbane and surrounding council areas move to Level 5 water restrictions on April 10, toughening water use on businesses and homes.

Leighton Contractors general manger Darren Weir said the property incorporated water design and power efficiency steps right from the design.

The building saves 410,000 kilowatts of energy each year compared to a conventional building and has water efficiency as a central feature.

"We have a method of retaining rainwater that comes onto the site where it gets fed through a drainage system and fed into a tank," Mr Weir said.

The roof of the South Tower is used to capture the rainwater which is stored in a 90,000 litre tank under the complex.

This water is used to flush toilets and to water the landscaping. No drinking water is stored in the underground tank.

Mr Weir said the design of the building saved 33.8 megalitres of water each year from a range of "water harvesting" and allocated different uses for the non-drinking water.

The building's air conditioning system was also chosen for its water-saving characteristics.

Air-cooled chillers in the system will save 22.5 megalitres of water alone every year.

Leightons will build their new "green" headquarters in Fortitude Valley in the next two years.

It is being built on the site of Brisbane City Council's Valley depot and will house their field staff, city building, geo-technical, pest management and plumbing services branches.

[SoulVision]

Just a vid about green square I uploaded..

[KJBrissy]

Assessed the new application for the tower at work today. New heights are 14 storey, 59m roof and 71m to top of communication mast.