Engineering The Lighthouse- exterior view façades
Engineering The Lighthouse- exterior view façades
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450 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne

450 Elizabeth Street is a 70-storey residential tower standing on a 1000m² street corner site in central Melbourne. Known as “The Lighthouse”, it will contain 610 apartments with communal facilities including a pool and a gymnasium. It also has an automated car parking system located in the podium.

Location

  • Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Client

  • Hengyi Australia

Project Status

  • Due for completion in 2018

Architect

Known as “The Lighthouse”, it will contain 610 apartments with communal facilities including a pool and a gymnasium. It also has an automated car parking system located in the podium.

The slender building has an undulating facade and appears to turn on its own central axis. WSP developed a close working relationship with the architect, Elenberg Fraser, to optimize the structure during the schematic design phase. A key factor to the efficiency of the core was the use of outrigger walls at discrete levels to link the central concrete core to perimeter columns.

Considerable effort was also put into aligning columns up the height of the building, using elongated blade columns to transition column locations rather than costly transfer beams and leading to considerable savings in material costs and time during construction on site.

The key structural features are as follows:

  • Central reinforced concrete core with outrigger walls at discrete levels tying perimeter columns into the stability system;

  • Full post-tensioned flat slabs to all typical floor levels;

  • Undulating facade requires changes to structural floor slabs at every level;

  • Optimized column layout coordinated with architect to remove transfer structures;

  • Single large diameter bored pier footings to support columns minimizing basement excavation and costly pile-cap beams; and

  • Tuned liquid column dampers on the roof to reduce building movement.

OTHER CHALLENGES THAT WE HAVE OVERCOME