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A skyscraping development that integrates three heritage-listed buildings at its base has broken ground in Melbourne. The 40-storey office tower will rise above the historic 1880s facades of the Olderfleet Buildings at 477 Collins Street, embracing a vertical village concept that splits the volume into three separate modules, capturing the internal organization of the development.
Designed by Grimshaw Architects for Mirvac, the project will be one of the developer's largest commercial ventures in Australia once complete in 2020. Deloitte has signed a 12-year lease for 22,000 square metres of office space in the building, with 30,000 square metres of lettable premium space across 18 floors still remaining. Of the three partitioned modules, Deloitte will occupy the central component. The bottom and top modules are currently available for prospective tenants. Each 'village' comes with an expansive outdoor terrace — Deloitte's balcony will wrap 270 degrees around the top floor of the middle section.
Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Robert Doyle; Deloitte Chairman and Victorian Managing Partner, Tom Imbesi; Deloitte CEO, Cindy Hook; Mirvac CEO and Managing Director, Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz; and additional development partners celebrated the start of construction with a ceremonial sod turning. The building is slated to have one of the largest office lobbies in Melbourne, with a cafe and business centre nestled within a 30-metre-high glass atrium. Boutique office and retail space will fill out the space inside the refurbished heritage buildings.
The building's design is an amalgamation of individually developed designs from Grimshaw's Melbourne, Sydney, London, and New York studios. A single cohesive vision for the project was then crafted out of the key characteristics of each of the four concepts.
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