QV.1
Encyclopedia
Storey
A storey or story is any level part of a building that could be used by people...
modernist
Modern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
skyscraper
Skyscraper
A skyscraper is a tall, continuously habitable building of many stories, often designed for office and commercial use. There is no official definition or height above which a building may be classified as a skyscraper...
in Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
. Completed in 1991, the 163 metres (534.8 ft) building is presently the fourth-tallest building in Perth, after Central Park
Central Park (skyscraper)
Central Park is a 51-storey office tower in Perth, Western Australia. The building measures from its base at St Georges Terrace to the roof, and to the tip of its communications mast. Upon its completion in 1992, the tower became the tallest building in Perth...
, the yet to be completed BHP Tower and the BankWest Tower
BankWest Tower
The BankWest Tower is a 52-storey office tower in Perth, Western Australia. Completed in 1988, the building measures to its roof and to the tip of its communications antenna. It was the tallest building in Perth from its completion in 1988 until 1992 when it was overtaken in height by Central...
. The project was designed by architect Harry Seidler
Harry Seidler
Harry Seidler, AC OBE was an Austrian-born Australian architect who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus in Australia.Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he...
and has won numerous awards for its innovative design and energy efficiency
Efficient energy use
Efficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the goal of efforts to reduce the amount of energy required to provide products and services. For example, insulating a home allows a building to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve and maintain a comfortable temperature...
.
Site and construction history
The property, which fronts St Georges TerraceSt Georges Terrace, Perth
St Georges Terrace is the main street in the city of Perth, Western Australia. It runs parallel to the Swan River and forms the major arterial road through the central business district....
, Hay Street
Hay Street, Perth
Hay Street is a major road through the CBD of Perth, Western Australia. The street was named after Robert William Hay, the Permanent Under Secretary for Colonies. Sections of the road were called Howick Street and Twiss Street until 1897...
and a whole block on Milligan Street, was home to various buildings, including two 11-storey buildings
and, at the corner of Hay and Milligan Streets, the first Fast Eddy's
Fast Eddy's
Fast Eddys is a fast food and restaurant chain operating in Perth, Western Australia and formerly in Adelaide, South Australia and Melbourne, Victoria...
burger bar.
Planning for the redevelopment began in the second half of the 1980s, with the design done by Harry Seidler
Harry Seidler
Harry Seidler, AC OBE was an Austrian-born Australian architect who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus in Australia.Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he...
& Associates Architects. The site fell partially within the boundaries of the statutory "Parliamentary Precinct", which limited skyscraper heights near Parliament House
Parliament House, Perth
Parliament House, Perth is located on Harvest Terrace in Perth, Western Australia. An important building of the Government of Western Australia, it is the home of the Parliament of Western Australia, including the Western Australian Legislative Council and Western Australian Legislative Assembly...
. The Environmental Committee of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
Royal Australian Institute of Architects
The Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
(WA Branch) recommended that the requirements for the precinct be amended to allow the development to take place.
The tower was named "Q.V.1" after the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
phrase Quo vadis
Quo vadis
Quo vadis? is a Latin phrase meaning "Where are you going?" or "Whither goest thou?" The modern usage of the phrase refers to Christian tradition, related in the apocryphal Acts of Peter , in which Saint Peter meets Jesus as Peter is fleeing from likely crucifixion in Rome...
(meaning "where are you going?").
With the plans finalised and approved, the site was purchased in 1989 for A$
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
30 million by a joint venture between Barrack Properties (50% share), Kajima Corporation
Kajima Construction
( is a Japanese construction company. Founded in 1840, the company has its headquarters in Moto-Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo. The company is known for its DIB-200 proposal.-Demolition Technology:...
(30%) and Interstruct (20%).
The purchase also included a site across Hay Street, which would be turned into a 4.5-storey car park for the development.
The owners of the Fast Eddy's restaurant had wanted to incorporate this restaurant into the new development, however they accepted a $5.2 million offer from the developers, and instead moved the restaurant to the corner of Murray Street and Milligan Street, where it remains today.
Finance on the tower had been made possible by a put option
Put option
A put or put option is a contract between two parties to exchange an asset, the underlying, at a specified price, the strike, by a predetermined date, the expiry or maturity...
granted by BT Property Trust and the New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
State Superannuation Board, whereby for an estimated fee of $20 million they agreed to buy the tower upon completion for $340 million if the option was exercised.
However, during construction of the tower, Perth property prices suffered a major collapse as demand for office space slumped. In August 1991, just six weeks out from completion, the building did not have a single tenant, and was regarded as "one of the great white elephants of the Australian property scene". The owners exercised the option in 1991 upon completion of the project, handing joint ownership to the Superannuation Board and BT Property Trust.
Post-completion
After QV.1's opening in 1991, Perth's office vacancy rate hit a high of 73.6% in 1993. However, by 1996 the tower was fully leased and in June 1998 remained the only premium-grade office tower in the city to be fully leased.When the tower was completed, some suggested the tower was too far west in the central business district.
However, the securing of WAPET
WAPET
West Australian Petroleum Pty Ltd was a pioneer oil and gas exploration and processing company in Western Australia. Formed in March 1952 as a joint venture between Caltex and Ampol, the company discovered Australia's first flowing oil in November the following year, at Rough Range on the North...
(now Chevron Australia) as a tenant in QV.1 was regarded as a turning point for the precinct, and helped to establish the west end of the CBD as a resources sector.
For many years the roof of the building has been used as a base from which to launch fireworks shells in the city's annual Lotterywest Skyworks
Lotterywest Skyworks
The City of Perth Skyworks is a fireworks show that is held over the section of the Swan River in Perth, Western Australia known as Perth Water. It is held every Australia Day on the 26th of January....
fireworks display on Australia Day
Australia Day
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia...
.
Also, following the death of the tower's architect Harry Seidler on 9 March 2006, a powerful light was temporarily installed on the roof of QV.1 to shine a beam into the sky as a memorial.
The BTA Property Trust sold its half-stake in the building in 1998 to corporate stablemate BT Office Trust for $130.57 million. In 2003 that half-stake was acquired by Investa Property Group, which in 2006 valued QV.1 at $400 million.
Design
According to architect Harry Seidler, one of the architectural objectives in the design of QV.1 was to minimise the impact of the tower when viewed from Parliament House, and this was addressed by offering a narrow profile to that direction. This was necessary to secure government approval for the construction of the tower within the Parliamentary Precinct. To this end, none of the building's facades point directly towards the Parliament building. On the northern side of the site is a two-level retail plaza featuring an artificial waterfallWater feature
In landscape architecture and garden design, a water feature is one or more items from a range of fountains, pools, ponds, cascades, waterfalls, and streams. Before the 18th century they were usually powered by gravity, though the famous Hanging Gardens of Babylon are described by Strabo as...
and pond.
Another of the design briefs identified by Harry Seidler was that the building should employ passive design in order to minimise energy costs. This is achieved through the use of tinted double glazed
Insulated glazing
Insulated glazing also known as double glazing are double or triple glass window panes separated by an air or other gas filled space to reduce heat transfer across a part of the building envelope....
windows, as well as the installation alongside windows of horizontal and vertical sun shades. The use of sun shades alone was estimated to reduce the building's cooling costs by $70,000 per year.
The building also features separate air-conditioning
HVAC
HVAC refers to technology of indoor or automotive environmental comfort. HVAC system design is a major subdiscipline of mechanical engineering, based on the principles of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer...
units for each floor, so that energy does not need to be wasted cooling or heating unoccupied floors. This can lead to substantial energy savings because in Perth's warm climate cooling costs can account for 60 to 70% of total building energy consumption.
The tower has a reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
core, measuring 21.5 metres (70.5 ft) on each side, which bears lateral forces including wind loading.
The perimeter of the building features reinforced concrete support column
Column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...
s spaced 7.3 metres (24 ft) apart, and there are no internal columns within floors. The perimeter columns and the core support 14.3 metres (46.9 ft) clear span post-tensioned beams
Beam (structure)
A beam is a horizontal structural element that is capable of withstanding load primarily by resisting bending. The bending force induced into the material of the beam as a result of the external loads, own weight, span and external reactions to these loads is called a bending moment.- Overview...
3.6 metres (11.8 ft) apart, with concrete slabs spanning between them. These beams are terminated slightly short so that they can be used as mechanical ducts. Some floors feature landscaped balcony gardens on their south faces, and the top floors feature two tiers of luxurious penthouse offices with landscaped terraces.
The main entrance to QV.1 from St Georges Terrace features a set of stone-clad hyperboloid supports that carry the loads
Structural load
Structural loads or actions are forces, deformations or accelerations applied to a structure or its components.Loads cause stresses, deformations and displacements in structures. Assessment of their effects is carried out by the methods of structural analysis...
of the two perimeter columns which terminate above them on the third floor. The lowest two office floors are mezzanine
Mezzanine (architecture)
In architecture, a mezzanine or entresol is an intermediate floor between main floors of a building, and therefore typically not counted among the overall floors of a building. Often, a mezzanine is low-ceilinged and projects in the form of a balcony. The term is also used for the lowest balcony in...
s so that the ceiling in the lobby
Lobby (room)
A lobby is a room in a building which is used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer or an entrance hall.Many office buildings, hotels and skyscrapers go to great lengths to decorate their lobbies to create the right impression....
is an imposing 14 metres (45.9 ft) high. The St Georges Terrace entrance is also protected from the elements by a flowing 50 metres (164 ft) suspended glass canopy
Canopy (building)
A canopy is an overhead roof or else a structure over which a fabric or metal covering is attached, able to provide shade or shelter. A canopy can also be a tent, generally without a floor....
. The building is clad with polished granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
.
The modernist
Modern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
building was criticised for being "Perth's most ugly building" and "a giant Lego
Lego
Lego is a line of construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks and an accompanying array of gears, minifigures and various other parts...
block", but architect Harry Seidler described QV.1 as "the best building he had ever built".
Awards
Awards which have been won by QV.1 over its lifetime include:- 1992 Royal Australian Institute of Architects (WA) Architecture Design Award – Commercial buildings over $200 million
- 1992 Royal Australian Institute of Architects (WA) Commendation – Civic Design Award for Commercial Buildings
- 1992 Royal Australian Institute of Architects (National) – Best design for a commercial building (over $200 million)
- 1992 Master Builders Association of Australia – Best workmanship for a building (over $200 million)
- 1999 Master Builders Association of Australia – National Energy Efficiency Award for Commercial Buildings (joint winner with Stadium Australia)
See also
- BankWest TowerBankWest TowerThe BankWest Tower is a 52-storey office tower in Perth, Western Australia. Completed in 1988, the building measures to its roof and to the tip of its communications antenna. It was the tallest building in Perth from its completion in 1988 until 1992 when it was overtaken in height by Central...
- List of tallest buildings in Perth
- List of tallest buildings in Australia
External links
- QV.1 Official site
- Emporis page on QV.1
- SkyscraperPage page on QV.1
- State Library of Western Australia – photograph of the building under construction