The revival of this post-war modernist building has been recognised with a 4 Green Star rating
Essentials
What: Charles Fergusson Building
Where: 38 Bowen Street, Wellington
The Building: Important Modernist building designed by the Ministry of Works (1976). Prominent in the Parliamentary precinct and capital cityscape for 45 years
Tenant: Ministry for Primary Industries
Occupancy: average of 1000 to 1200 occupiers on a daily basis
Project Snapshot
Owner: Precinct Properties
Architect: Warren and Mahoney
Main contractor: LT McGuinness Ltd
Project manager: RCP
Service engineer: Norman Disney & Young
GSAP: Patrick Arnold, eCubed
Project status: Redevelopment, November 2016 to December 2018
Project certification: 4 Green Star NZ Office Built v3
The bronze lettering mounted above the lobby entrance of the Charles Fergusson Building sums up its Green Star story.
It’s a tale about the transformation of a dark, dingy and dated tower block into a green high-end office workplace using the structural elements of an earlier era.
Recycling is the story’s central theme.
“The bronze lettering is a great metaphor for the whole Charles Fergusson Building project and shows how something old and tired can be revived with hard work. We salvaged the rugged looking original lettering from the building’s exterior then sent it away for refurbishment with a local bronze specialist,” says Nick Morris, project lead at LT McGuinness.
“In the final weeks the lettering was integrated back onto the building and it looks awesome.”
Delivering a fantastic result was building owner Precinct Properties’ priority when it redeveloped its high profile 16-storey premises on Bowen Street.
Armed with a green-thinking trajectory it embarked on revamping, strengthening and extending Charles Fergusson Building’s overall net lettable area while bringing the property up to speed.
A key feature of Precinct Properties’ Bowen Campus project – which
seeks to create a fully integrated environment for building users in the heritage precinct adjacent to Parliament Buildings - the Charles Fergusson Building revamp shines as an example of adaptive reuse.
“The structure and core of the existing building was non-negotiable. The challenge of the project was how to deliver contemporary office space within the restrictions imposed by a structure designed in an earlier technological era,” says Precinct Properties CEO, Scott Pritchard.
Warren and Mahoney’s design directive focused on reutilisation and re-setting the building in its neighbourhood.
“The project provided two unique opportunities - firstly re-tailoring how the building functioned as a 21st century workplace using the strong bones of the original building and secondly the urban design opportunity to re-set how the building addressed its immediate urban context and the adjacent buildings in the Parliamentary precinct,” says Tom Locke, principal architect at Warren and Mahoney.
“Using these strategies minimised the embodied carbon of the development through reuse and repurposing of the original concrete structure while providing better urban connectivity supporting more sustainable transport choices by the building users,” Tom says.
Recladding the exterior of Charles Fergusson Building, repositioning and reconstructing its entry lobby – a double height atrium – and efficient new lift systems and mechanical services (driven by a site-wide building management system) have been major elements of its new form.
The new curtain wall façade uses insulating glass unit (IGU) technology) and is a high performance upgrade over the original cladding; providing extra floor space to facilitate highly flexible office configurations.
At the same time full height glazing has opened up a striking visual connection for building occupiers to Parliament and the town belt beyond.
Charles Fergusson Building is now air conditioned by a super-energy efficient, small footprint water source variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system - one of the largest in Wellington.
Project GSAP and eCubed Building Workshop Ltd director, Patrick Arnold says Charles Fergusson Building has been redeveloped to meet the Government’s WAP2 (Wellington Accommodation Project) brief and Building Performance Specification (BPS) standards which ensure green credentials and Green Star recognition are to the fore.
“The Building Performance Specification for government tenanted offices refers to a raft of Green Star requirements which demonstrate how Green Star is now influencing the construction industry generally. Effectively the minimum expectation has been lifted to a 4-star level,” he says.
LT McGuinness says green practices were fundamental to the project including sorting, recycling and diversion from landfill of construction and demolition waste and the processing and recycling of scrap metals.
“Our history of delivering Green Star projects means green-thinking is implicit in our everyday planning and activity onsite,” says Nick.
LT McGuinness received fantastic support from its suppliers including Carters Petone who tracked the supply chain of all timber products so information was to hand when required.
Nick says the 4 Green Star rating for Charles Fergusson Building sets it apart from other local projects undertaken at the same time.
“A 4 Green Star rating is a real mark of quality. It demonstrates the building is highly sustainable and is built to a high specification and it only improves the experience for tenants.”
Precinct Properties is intent on upgrading and improving its portfolio to achieve higher Green Star ratings.
“The higher the rating, the higher the building’s efficiency and this is now a significant factor for occupiers who are increasingly seeking office accommodation solutions that support more sustainable building operations and efficiency,” says Scott Pritchard.
“MPI is benefiting from the eco-friendly, energy-smart office environment at Charles Fergusson Building”.
Green features include:
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Technical features include:
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