The power of good design
OUR WORLD-CLASS BUILDINGS PROUDLY SAY WE ARE CLEVER, CREATIVE AND INNOVATIVE ON A GLOBAL SCALE
SIGNS that Geelong is a city on the rise have been written in the sky.
From the Miramar and Mercer apartment buildings to the WorkSafe, Barwon Water and NDIA office towers, Geelong’s growth is being reflected in the towering glass facades of striking urban architecture.
The changing skyline gives the CBD a presence befitting a city of substance and the quality of these buildings are setting a standard for all that follow.
Because they have set the bar high, these buildings, along with the redeveloped Geelong Arts Centre and the soon-to-be-complete transformation of Kardinia Park, are shaping the city now and into the future.
Quality architectural design involves more than aesthetics. Great civic and commercial buildings need to be functional, meaningful and inspire a sense of place and connection.
The City of Greater Geelong’s new headquarters, Wurriki Nyal, is the latest premier office building set to make a statement about the city it will serve with its eco-friendly engineered timber design destined to create an elegant, contemporary, light-filled workplace.
It’s simple, clean beauty will also exemplify Geelong’s status as a City of Design.
Wurriki Nyal joins the recently opened GMHBA building in Moorabool St and the 14-storey WorkSafe Victoria headquarters, which opened in 2018, in being developed by property private equity company Quintessential Equity.
Executive chairman Shane Quinn says Quintessential Equity’s design vision for the WorkSafe building was for it to be of the highest quality, able to stand proudly in any street in any city in Australia.
“We decided when we came to Geelong that if we didn’t build PCA A Grade buildings with the highest level of sustainability credentials, we weren’t going to provide a platform for the organisations that sit inside these buildings to attract and retain the best possible talent,” Quinn says.
The WorkSafe building became only the second in the world at the time to achieve a Platinum Core & Shell WELL Building Standard rating, and NABERS, the National Australian Built Environment Rating System, awarded it a 5.5 Star Base Building Energy Rating as well as a 6 Star Green Star As built rating.
While governments led the leasing precommitments required to create the property investment in the Geelong CBD, Quinn says it was inevitable the private sector would realise that to compete for talent they, too, would have to provide the highest quality in office accommodation.
He therefore sees GMHBA’s development of 60 Moorabool St as a landmark in the evolution of Geelong’s prosperity and its transition from an industrial city to a predominantly white collar one. Quintessential Equity’s latest project, Wurriki Nyal, adds to the city’s suite of healthy, modern workplaces with its sustainable credentials including pioneering use of cross-laminated timber.
“That building is going to lead the way in Australia for what is the lowest carbon footprint on day one of a new building,” Quinn says.
Quintessential Equity is also working to complete the civic precinct with the addition of a twin building that will potentially attract Melbourne-based businesses wanting to secure flexible workspace in Geelong.
“We think those buildings are going to allow the businesses who inhabit them to retain and attract the best talent,” Quinn says.
While the heart of any great city needs to have excellent work spaces, that standard must carry into the places people live and play.
The desire to design new community spaces is evident in the civic precinct which will visually and physically connect with Johnstone Park, City Hall, the Geelong Library and Heritage
Centre and the Geelong Arts Centre.
Committee for Geelong CEO Jennifer Cromarty says that it was perhaps the stunning redevelopment of the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre in 2015 that opened all our eyes to the power of design.
“The distinctive Dome makes a proud statement about the city it serves,” Cromarty says. “Before it became the community’s visionary catchcry, when The Dome arrived it proudly stated that Geelong was ‘clever and creative’.
“It also expressed the ambition of a city that wanted to take its place on a grander stage and build its future on creativity and innovation.”
That ambition is also clear with the world-class transformations of the Geelong Arts Centre and GMHBA Stadium.
A major overhaul of the 750-seat Playhouse Theatre at the arts centre was completed in 2010, followed by the stunning Ryrie St redevelopment in
2019.
Now, the $140m Little Malop Street Redevelopment is under way with stunning designs for the project, due to be completed in 2023, released earlier this month.
The state-government-funded redevelopment will significantly expand the capacity of the centre with multiple new performance venues and new facilities for staff and patrons.
Geelong Arts Centre CEO Joel McGuinness says the project will provide Geelong and the region with a vibrant, inclusive and dynamic creative centre that will attract and host the best local, national and international events.
He says the arts centre and the broader cultural precinct show how the planning, strategic direction and UNESCO designation as a City of
Design are influencing the city’s economic development.
“It allows for creativity and creative people to come together in the heart of the city and facilitates their role as change makers in our community,” McGuinness says.
Meanwhile, on the fringe of the CBD, the footy stadium that is home to the city’s best-known brand, the Geelong Cats, is undergoing the final phase of a 20-year transformation.
The fifth stage of the GMHBA Stadium redevelopment will complete a circle of improvements involving the Brownlow, Players, Premiership and Reg Hickey stands, and the light towers.
Replacing the ageing Ford Stand and Ablett Terrace, the $142m project involves construction of a 14,000capacity, two-tier stand that will increase the ground’s total capacity to more than 40,000, enhancing its ability to host national and international sporting and entertainment events.
Kardinia Park Stadium Trust chief executive officer Gerard Griffin says that while the stadium has played a leading role in positioning Geelong as a progressive and growing city, the range of property developments across the
CBD in the past decade are working together to project the city’s overall brand.
“We like to think it’s Australia’s best regional stadium and what I think it also leads to is that we are in one of Australia’s most successful regional cities,” Griffin says.
“The stadium feeds the image and the brand of the city and the city feeds the image and the reputation of the stadium, so they work hand in glove.
“You can’t do it on your own. But when you are doing it as part of a collective and you are doing it as part of a region on the move and a CBD that is on the move, that makes it far more appealing to those you are trying to attract.
The quality of the stadium in catering to a range of community uses, from business functions to conventions and weddings, is also significant.
“I can’t think of too many regional stadiums that can fulfill these functions and deliver to this standard of quality,” Griffin says.
THE REDEVELOPMENT WILL PROVIDE A VIBRANT, INCLUSIVE AND DYNAMIC CREATIVE CENTRE THAT WILL ATTRACT AND HOST THE BEST LOCAL, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL EVENTS