Australian High-Rise Infill Project Melds Two Obsolete Brisbane Office Towers Together As One

Midtown Centre, an elegant, glass-encased new 26-office tower, recently topped out in Brisbane, Australia’s central business district. And with the exception of those intimate with the area, most passersby might never realize that the single building was, not long ago, a pair of outdated, 1970s-era governmental high-rises that have been fused together in what’s been described as a first-of-it’s kind project for Australia.

Built at the same time and closely mirroring each other, the old Queensland Health and Forestry buildings—with just 66 feet between them—were stripped of their original facades and a ~1,900 sqm floorplate.

The once-adjacent, now-united buildings comprise a total of over ~47,300 sqm of Grade-A office space. Rio Tinto will serve as the anchor tenant and occupy about 21,500 of those square metres.

“The owners of the buildings, Ashe Morgan and DMANN Corporation, decided against knocking them down and asked us to create this vision” (Mark Curzon).

By joining the two buildings together in lieu of demolishing them and building anew with massive amounts of concrete and steel, the project has achieved carbon savings of roughly 11,000 metric tonnes per year.

See original article: https://www.archpaper.com/2020/06/australian-high-rise-infill-project-melds-two-obsolete-brisbane-towers-into-one/