Project Update: Queensland Institute of Medical Research

QIMR Herston Rd Entrance

Transforming an existing medical research facility in Herston, QLD to align with the surrounding complex.

Queensland Institute of Medical Research Phase 3, or QIMR ph. 3, is the refurbishment of the Bancroft Centre. It is located just outside Brisbane’s CBD next to the Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital.

The Bancroft Centre, owned by QIMR  is contracted to be built by Watpac. The project is designed by a joint architectural venture between Wilson and Wardle architects.

G.James’ Role

This project initiated as a design and documentation contract, in which G.James were required to advise and recommend the design of glazing works, survey the existing building and detail the information via formal drawings. Due to the positive contributions and coordination of this aspect of the project, G.James were awarded stage 2 – the supply and install of the glazing works.

The Bancroft Centre

The Bancroft Centre is a 14 storey concrete building with feature beams and columns criss crossing the building dividing up the individual windows and balconies spread across the elevations. At ground level, a large lobby window and sub station louvre is also part of the upgrade.

The medical research undertaken at the centre is highly sensitive. In the pursuit of the solutions being investigated, the building will be partially occupied by the client throughout the construction process. This will affect parts or entire floors at different stages. Close coordination of on site works, monitoring clients requirements and ensuring safety for all, dictates progress.

External Refurbish

The basic concrete structure remains, with the southern concrete face being removed and extended out towards Herston Road. The extensions are supported by a grid work of steel with concrete platforms. The face lift is to extend down the western side to the existing balconies and on the eastern side to the recently erected QIMR central building.

The architectural intent is to create a look that reflects the existing Clive Berghofer Cancer Research Centre (CBCRC) located on the other side of the QIMR central building. To do this:

  • The main façade on the curtain wall is being replicated as much as possible.
  • The visible rendered sheer walls are being covered with Alpolic cladding to wrap around to the front of the balconies and underside of the soffits in a similar fashion to the CBCRC building.
  • Glazing in the balconies and lobby were replaced to reflect the more natural colour scheme and full height layout of the CBCRC.
  • Louvres are being modernised and/or introduced to cope with the needs of the buildings updated research capacity, the design of which is in keeping with the other QIMR buildings.

G.James has followed stringent processing and approval of the glazing samples and design to ensure these principles are followed adequately.

Design: Energy and Acoustic Efficiency

Renovations on old buildings require them to be upgraded to meet the latest energy efficient guidelines. To accomplish this, the Bancroft refurbishment required higher performing windows than the original.  Another important design element to consider was that the Bancroft Centre is situated at what is now one of Brisbane’s busiest intersections.

Fronting onto Herston Road, a stones throw from Bowen Bridge Road, bus ways and the Inner City Bypass, shows the heightened necessity for acoustic protection.

The main curtain wall façade utilises the 651 series with highly efficient IGU’s made from Solarplus engineered glass with an acoustic laminate internally to assist with noise deadening. The visible features of the curtain wall replicate that of its neighbour providing a plaid pattern of greens and silver that provide the desired sister building effect.

The balconies use 450 framing with 475 door systems for the balconies’ hinged and sliding doors. A custom solution was introduced with laminated glass incorporating a thick 1.14mm acoustic laminate and energy tech inner lite working together for maximum efficiency and sound protection.

An environmental advantage to being involved in the design of the cladding, minimised the wastage by designing the cladding widths to suit what was commercially available. Approximately 85% of the panels could be made to their natural width.

Unusual Design Elements

The lobby or main entry spans a height of two stories. It has concrete features penetrating through the facade. This required some innovative design to incorporate these obstacles while maintaining the ability to replace the existing framing in a short turn around of a week. 650 framing was used in the lobby to achieve this.

The curtain wall is usually lifted into place by a mini crane positioned on the building.  It is dedicated to the curtain wall install.  On QIMR however, a tower crane had been fitted on site to accommodate phase 2 construction, and is also being used for phase 3.  This meant that fixing the curtain wall had to be timed in between other site deliveries and other uses required of the crane.

This has been a unique project with G.James contributing very early in the design process to assist in setting our the buildings requirements for our own and adjacent works. The achievements so far have culminated with smooth progression though out the project with the mutual assistance and close coordination between Watpac and G.James.

Looking ahead

G.James role at the Bancroft Centre is to be finalised approximately mid 2013, and the entire project to be competed by mid 2014. Tours of the QIMR facilities are available to the public. You can book a tour on the QIMR website.

Newington College – Sesquicentenary Building Project

The new curtain wall at Newington College

G.James has recently finished work on the Sesquicentenary Building Project at Newington College in Bankstown, Sydney. The bulk of this project comprises two new combined buildings – The Lawrence Pyke Science Centre and The Tony Rae Resources Centre Library. The project was designed by Budden Nangle Michael & Hudson Architects, and builder A W Edwards was contracted to construct it.

Foyer to the building.G.James’ work on the project comprised the design, supply and installation of windows, doors, curtain walls, glass walls, glass canopies, a glass greenhouse, aluminium cappings and soffits– utilising our 850-500, 651, 451, 475 and 476 Series frames. Jockey sashes from our 150 Series were required for most windows, and some windows also featured curved heads. G.James’ Sydney Commercial Façades division carried out the work on this project.

Noise Reduction

Acoustic laminate was used extensively throughout the project to minimise disruption to classes from external noise. Typically 12.76mm acoustic laminated glass was used externally and 10.76mm clear Low E coated ccoustic laminated glass was used internally in jockey sashes and internal skins. This was an important consideration as Newington College sits directly below the approach flight path into Sydney Airport with approaching aircraft flying very low directly above the school.

Curtain Wall Glazing

Curtain wall glazing.Four “curtain wall” sections were defined by the Architect and included in G.James’ scope of work. Two of these were fabricated as 850-500 Series structural glazed curtain walls. The Stair glazing used the 850-500 Series structural glazed frame as a window wall fitted between steel horizontal supports. Coloured back glass was used to infill between the frames and hide the steel. Jockey sashes and secondary frames were used behind these frames to create large cavities for acoustics. On one curtain wall an additional 850 Series frame was used as an internal frame to provide the nominated 400mm airspace.

Dual skinned Curtain Wall

The most prominent feature of the building is the final curtain wall  – pictured at the top of this post. This is a dual skinned arrangement with the outer skin built out from the building by a metre with three horizontal steel trusses. The glazed height of this wall is approximately 9.4m and is glazed with pieces of glass each approximately 4.7 m high by 2m wide – weighing a hefty 300Kg. This glass is supported by glazing channels top and bottom, and also by 15mm annealed glass fins vertically. The internal glazing skin comprises G.James’ 450 Series frame fitted with the flush face to the inside and incorporating jockey sashes fitted in-line with the fixed glass for access and maintenance. The metre wide cavity between the glass is ventilated and includes 600 mm wide horizontal and vertical automated tracking sun shades installed into this space by another contractor.

G.James has also supplied and installed soffit linings below this glazing, metre wide cappings over the cavity, and also to the other curtain walls. Several glazed awnings and a glazed greenhouse were also completed.

Official Opening

The buildings will be officially opened in July as part of the 150th anniversary celebrations at Newington College.

Our Bundaberg office gets a new façade

Our Bundaberg office has been transformed with the use of our latest colour printing on glass technology. Over the last few months we have covered the topic of digital ceramic glass printing several times on this website. Our Bundaberg office located at  49/51 Enterprise Street, Bundaberg was due for a refurbishment, so G.James decided to put our printing capabilities to use creating a vibrant new façade for the building.

The Bundaberg Branch

The Bundaberg Branch was established in 1972 and is where former branch manager Geoff Thorne started his career with G.James. When Geoff retired in August 2012 he reflected on his time at G.James saying “When I started at G.James, this building was the best looking building in the street. Now that I am retiring, the building is again the best looking in the street”.

The Branch is now managed by Robert Astill and continues to service Bundaberg, Wide Bay & southern sector of central QLD.

The transformation

G.James Bundaberg Branch (Before)

The old office building was in need of refurbishment after many years of use. The new sales office and showroom features a fully glazed façade with glass spandrels ceramic printed with a full colour representation of the lush sugar cane that is common in the Bundaberg region. The façade fits with the character of the area, and puts a striking face on our sales office. Sunshades were also installed above the vision glass around the building, to help keep the north facing building cool.

The process

The first step was to find a suitable image for the building. The Bundaberg staff were involved in selecting an image they would be happy to have on their office building. It was important to include the staff in the decision to make sure we created a building they were happy to tell friends and family about, as well as work in.

We selected the sugar cane image below, to be placed on a blue background.

Sugarcane Image

Source image: 68cm wide X 50cm high @ 300dpi (8024px X 5940px @ 300dpi) at full size

The next step was to modify the image to maximise the printed effect over multiple floors. We created a concept render to ensure the image wouldn’t appear too busy or overbearing.

Bundaberg Building Concept Render

47 panels of artwork in total, 15 of those were corner panels

After the concept was complete, the G.James team scaled the image file to suit the CAD drawing of the Façade. This resulted in a very large image file requiring a couple of powerful PCs to do the processing work.

Bundaberg Building CAD Drawing

Bundaberg Building CAD Drawing – The front of the facade is 16.48m x 6.40m, the sides are 5.11m x 6.40m

Image and CAD drawing combined

Image and CAD drawing combined.

Each panel that required printing was then identified. The vision glass panels were excluded and we printed on a total of 47 spandrel glass panels.

Talk of the town

The façade has already attracted significant attention from those passing by, and has transformed our sales office into an exciting and unique advertisement for our business.

Keep your eyes peeled for another exciting transformation in the new year – G.James Cairns.

Who to contact

To find out more, please visit our glass printing gallery, or contact G.James Glass Sales on  (07) 3877 2866. Our Bundaberg office can be reached on (07) 4155 4888.

Revitalising a classic home with natural light

Our Gold Coast Branch has recently completed the renovation of a large architect designed home situated in the Gold Coast hinterland. The scope of the renovation focused on improving the use of natural light while also creating warmer, more appealing living and entertaining spaces.

The Renovation

The hinterland region has a mild climate in summer, and can get quite cold in winter. With this in mind, Solect® Clear laminated glass was specified on certain elevations. The Solect range of glass products offer high performance qualities in both solar control and light transmission.

Large fixed windows were installed to maximise the amount of natural light allowed into the home. The unusual shape of the building required custom framing to accomodate the rake of the roof.

Frameless Glass balustrading was used on the staircase, and clear laminated glass flooring on the upper landing to further aid the spread of light throughout the home.

Sliding doors were used to expand the living space of the home outside in good conditions, with awning windows above to allow for additional ventilation.

Industry Awarded

This stunning renovation has gained well deserved recognition from industry bodies having received the 2012 Glass & Aluminium Association of Queensland Award for the Best Use of Glass & Glazing – Residential and, more recently, the Australian Window Association’s 2012 award for the Best Use of Windows & Doors in a Residential Renovation.

Who was involved

The Architect responsible for the design of this major makeover was Paul Uhlmann, and the project was managed by Graeme Cameron Constructions.  The windows, doors and specialised glazing was supplied by the team at G.James Gold Coast.

Get In touch

G.James has the product range and experience to ensure your next project is an outstanding success. To find out more please contact your nearest branch.