1 William Street (colloquially known as the Tower of Power and One Big Willy)1 William Street: High winds, rain delay completion of Brisbane's 'Tower of Power', Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 22 August 2016
is a skyscraper in

William Street, Brisbane William Street is a small, relatively quiet road in the uptown part of the Brisbane central business district. The street is historically significant to the city's early development as a penal colony. The first convict buildings were built along ...

, Queensland, Australia. At , it is the third-tallest building in the city and 12th-tallest building in Australia as of 2022. The

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

office building is located in the

Brisbane CBD Brisbane City is the central Suburbs and localities (Australia), suburb and central business district of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia. It is also colloquially referred to as the "Brisbane CBD", "the city", or simply "to ...

, and in close proximity to the neighbouring Parliament House. The building was developed for the

Queensland Government The Queensland Government is the state government of Queensland, Australia, a Parliament, parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Government is formed by the party or coalition that has gained a majority in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, ...

as part of its plan for a renewed Government Administrative Precinct and to meet accommodation demands. It was completed in October 2016 with over 5,000 government staff moving in over six weekends.

History of the site

The site was formerly bisected by Short Street and comprised a number of different allotments and uses. Buildings occupied the area as early as 1854 and it was used for a variety of functions including; manufacturing, warehousing, shipping, housing, and electricity generation. The Queensland Government began purchasing the properties in the 1960s as part of their Government Precinct development scheme and began demolishing the existing buildings, some dating to the 1850s. The demolition of the adjacent Bellevue Hotel and construction of 80 George Street saw the spoil from there dumped on the 1 William Street site. Short Street was closed and all of the site was amalgamated into one allotment, 1 William Street. In 1974, the site was allocated for future government offices. 1 William Street is a site, owned by the Queensland Government, and from 1982 until 2013 it was used as a government car park. The site encompasses a whole city block between

William William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...

Alice Alice may refer to: * Alice (name), most often a feminine given name, but also used as a surname Literature * Alice (''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland''), a character in books by Lewis Carroll * ''Alice'' series, children's and teen books by ...

and

Margaret Margaret is a feminine given name, which means "pearl". It is of Latin origin, via Ancient Greek and ultimately from Iranian languages, Old Iranian. It has been an English language, English name since the 11th century, and remained popular thro ...

streets and Riverside Expressway.

Cultural heritage significance

The site has archaeological potential of possible cultural heritage significance. Remnants of 1850s buildings are visible above the current ground level and it is likely that significant sub-surface fabric survives.

Development

In August 2012, Expressions of Interest were called for from experienced organisations interested in bidding for the project. It was proposed that the site would be available to the successful party under a long-term lease arrangement and that the Queensland Government would take a long-term lease over approximately of the office space in the development. In September 2012, six developers were shortlisted to develop proposals for a new high-rise tower. The shortlisted companies were Cbus,

Lendlease Lendlease is an Australian multinational construction and real estate company, headquartered in Barangaroo, Sydney, New South Wales. History Founding The company was established as Lendlease by Dick Dusseldorp in 1958 to provide finance fo ...

, Brookfield, Westfield, Leighton Properties and

Grocon Grocon is an Australian property development, property developer, construction, contractor and Investment management, funds management company that is privately owned by the Bruno Grollo, Grollo family. Founded in Melbourne in 1948, it expanded ...

. In December 2012, Cbus was announced as the developer for 1 William Street. The developer was granted a 99-year lease over the site and a guaranteed 15-year government lease for of office space.

Design

1 William Street has a gross floor area of and a net lettable area of of office space, excluding retail which covers . The design includes 318 car bays. About has been allocated for government space, leaving around to be subleased by the private sector. It is intended to receive a 5-star NABERS office energy rating and a 3-star NABERS office water rating. The building is the first new commercial office building developed for government in the Brisbane CBD since the completion of the government office building at 33

Charlotte Street Charlotte Street is a street in Fitzrovia, historically part of the parish and borough of St Pancras, in central London. It has been described, together with its northern and southern extensions (Fitzroy Street and Rathbone Place), as the ' ...

in 2004. The theme and colour scheme for each floor has been dedicated to a Queensland icon or natural phenomenon.

Construction

The construction, which was undertaken by

Multiplex Multiplex may refer to: Science and technology * Multiplex communication, combining many signals into one transmission circuit or channel ** Multiplex (television), a group of digital television or radio channels that are combined for broadcast * ...

, commenced in early 2013 and was completed in 2016. The

groundbreaking Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, turf-cutting, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such cer ...

of the site, attended by

Treasurer A treasurer is a person responsible for the financial operations of a government, business, or other organization. Government The treasury of a country is the department responsible for the country's economy, finance and revenue. The treasure ...

Tim Nicholls and Deputy Premier

Jeff Seeney Jeffrey William Seeney (born 2 February 1957) is a former Australian politician and the former Deputy Premier, Minister for State Development and Minister for Infrastructure and Planning of Queensland. He was a member of the Legislative Assembl ...

, was held on 4 March 2013. From 1 October 2016, nine full departments and agencies, all state government ministers, most Directors-General and more than 5,000 public servants moved to 1 William Street. Some sections from 11 other departments also shifted to 1 William Street, while other sections of these departments will move to other buildings in the inner-city. Three buildings were demolished: the Executive Building at 100 George Street, the Executive Annex at 80 George Street and the Neville Bonner Building at 75 William Street.

Tenants

The building houses between 5,000 and 6,000 public servants. The entirety of the 1 William Street building is occupied by various departments in the

: * Department of Treaty, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Communities and the Arts * Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (also 41 George Street) * Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services (plus 111 George Street) *

Department of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

(plus 54 Mary Street) * Department of Energy and Climate * Department of Environment, Science and Innovation (plus 400 George Street) *

Queensland Health Queensland Health is the public health system in Queensland, Australia, comprising sixteen statutory Hospital and Health Services (HHS), the Department of Health and Queensland Ambulance Service. Each HHS provides health services to its local ...

(plus 33 Charlotte Street, Basin Pocket QLD 4305 & 100 & 108 Wickham Street, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006) * Department of Housing, Local Government, Planning and Public Works (plus 41 George Street and 60 Albert Street) * Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning * Department of Justice and Attorney-General (plus 400 George Street) * Department of the Premier and Cabinet (plus 400 George Street) * Department of Resources * Department of Employment, Small Business and Training * Public Sector Commission * Department of Regional Development, Manufacturing and Water (plus 140 Creek Street) * Department of State Development and Infrastructure * Department of Transport and Main Roads (plus 61 Mary Street, 313 Adelaide Street) * Trade and Investment Queensland * Queensland Treasury * Department of Tourism and Sport (plus 63 George Street) * Queensland Corrective Services * Queensland Fire Department *

Queensland Ambulance Service The Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) is the state emergency ambulance and patient transport provider in Queensland, Australia. QAS is part of the Queensland Government under the Queensland Health portfolio and is one of the largest ambulan ...

Queensland Police Service The Queensland Police Service (QPS) is the principal law enforcement agency responsible for policing the Australian state of Queensland. In 1990, the Queensland Police Force was officially renamed the Queensland Police Service and the old motto ...

References

External links

Building at the Queensland Treasury websiteBuilding at the Woods Bagot website

Building at the designbuild-network websiteBuilding at The Skyscraper Center database1 William Street at Bennett and Bennett
{{DEFAULTSORT:1 William Street, Brisbane Neomodern architecture in Australia Office buildings completed in 2016 Skyscraper office buildings in Brisbane William Street, Brisbane 2016 establishments in Australia