Waterfront Place is an office building in the
Brisbane central business district
Brisbane City is the central 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 "town". The CBD is located on a point ...
in
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
, Australia. It is located at 1 Eagle Street, beside the
Brisbane River
The Brisbane River (Turrbal language, Turrbal: ) is the longest river in South East Queensland, Australia. It flows through the city of Brisbane, before emptying into Moreton Bay on the Coral Sea. John Oxley, the first European to explore the ...
. It was constructed by renowned Queensland builder and developer
F. A. Pidgeon and Son who led the projects development in a joint venture with Folkestone Limited. Construction was completed in 1989. The building stands tall.
The Waterfront Place foyer is regularly used for art exhibitions. A
grand piano
A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
is featured in the southern end of the foyer and can usually be heard playing during the morning as office workers arrive at the building. During the Christmas season, choirs and instrumentalists perform
Christmas music
Christmas music comprises a variety of Music genre, genres of music regularly performed or heard around the Christmas and holiday season, Christmas season. Music associated with Christmas may be purely instrumental, or in the case of Christmas ...
.
Architecture
Waterfront Place is one of Brisbane's landmark office towers, located on the edge of the Brisbane River in the heart of the Brisbane central business district. The building features views of the City, the Brisbane River and
Story Bridge
The Story Bridge is a heritage-listed steel cantilever bridge spanning the Brisbane River built to carry vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic between the northern and the southern suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It is the long ...
, and, from its upper floors, the islands of
Moreton Bay
Moreton Bay is a bay located on the eastern coast of Australia from central Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of Queensland's most important coastal resources. The waters of Moreton Bay are a popular destination for recreational anglers and are ...
. Waterfront Place is only a short walk from stops of
ferries
A ferry is a boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus.
...
(
Eagle Street Pier),
CityCat
RiverCity Ferries is a public transport company which commenced operating ferry services in Brisbane on 4 November 2020. It is a subsidiary of the Kelsian Group.
RiverCity Ferries operates 36 vessels serving 22 wharves on the Brisbane River u ...
s (
Riverside),
buses
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a motor vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van, but fewer than the average rail transport. It is most commonly used ...
, and the
City Botanic Gardens
The City Botanic Gardens (formerly the Brisbane Botanic Gardens) is a heritage-listed botanic garden on Alice Street, Brisbane City, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was also known as Queen's Park. It is located on Gardens Poi ...
.
The architects for Waterfront were Cameron Chisholm Nicol. The building was completed in December 1989, and was officially opened on 15 February 1990 by the Honourable
Wayne Goss
Wayne Keith Goss (26 February 1951 – 10 November 2014) was Premier of Queensland from 7 December 1989 until 19 February 1996, becoming the first Labor Premier of the state in over 32 years. Prior to entering politics, Goss was a solicitor, an ...
, the then
Premier of Queensland
The premier of Queensland is the head of government in the Australian state of Queensland.
By convention the premier is the leader of the party with a parliamentary majority in the Legislative Assembly of Queensland. The premier is appointed ...
.
The site now occupied by Waterfront Place was part of Brisbane's original port.
[ In 1888 Naldham House, (part of the original Waterfront Place development, but subsequently sold in 1994), was built for the ]Australasian United Steam Navigation Company
The Australasian United Steam Navigation Company (AUSNC) was an Australian shipping company formed in 1887 by the merger of the Australasian Steam Navigation Company and the Queensland Steam Shipping Company and their fleets. It existed fro ...
. By the late 1970s the site was in ownership of both 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, ...
and the Inchcape Group of the UK. F. A. Pidgeon and Son purchased the part of the site owned by the Inchcape Group in 1982 with the intention of developing an office building in the future.[ The crumbling dockyard area was gradually redeveloped after 1984 into the current Eagle Street riverfront complex.
The original waterfront site covers approximately , has two prominent street frontages and frontage to the river. However, the adjoining Norman Wharf site owned by the State Government was unsightly and acted as a barrier between the site and the rest of the Brisbane central business district. To develop the site to its best potential it became necessary to purchase the Norman Wharf site from the State Government. The final site area was approximately including both freehold and leasehold, and enjoyed frontages on Eagle Street, Felix Street and Mary Street.
]
The building became a concern in the interest of public safety in November 2007, after a window pane fell from the building's 27th storey and landed on the road below. The pane shattered before it hit the ground, narrowly missing pedestrians and cars. The pane is one of more than 200 of which that have fallen from Waterfront Place since 1990, due to an impurity of nickel sulfide
Nickel sulfide is any inorganic compound with the formula NixSy. These compounds range in color from bronze (Ni3S2) to black (NiS2). The nickel sulfide with simplest stoichiometry is NiS, also known as the mineral millerite. From the economic ...
in the glass, which causes the glass to expand and shatter when it gets hot. In the mid-1990s, more than 300 windows containing the impurity were replaced in the building, however it is understood that there are still more windows with the defect. Following the 2007 incident, additional awnings were constructed across Felix Street to prevent falling window panes from landing on vehicles and pedestrians, and the marina
A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : "related to the sea") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats.
A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo ...
in the Brisbane River has been dismantled.
The building's two-level carpark was completely flooded during the 2011 Brisbane flood and the whole building was inaccessible for a week.
Office floors
Typical floor size ranges from approximately . Floors are a column free space with a window-to-core distance. There are ten corner offices per floor. Other statistics include;
* floor to ceiling height
* window sill height
* Granite floors and marble wall tiles in the bathrooms.
* Ability to install connecting stairs for multiple floor tenants
* Separate lobby for goods delivery
* light and ceiling grid system
The building is serviced by 22 lifts: six each for three floor sections, two goods lifts, and two lifts between the foyer and two underground car parks.
There are stand-by power facilities designed to generate 100% backup power in the event of mains power failure. Part of the equipment installed on the roof serves the communications needs of the Queensland State Emergency Service
The State Emergency Service (SES) is the name used by a number of separate civil defence organisations in Australia that provide assistance during and after major incidents. Specifically, the services deal with floods, storms and tsunamis, b ...
.
Construction
In 1986, Folkestone Limited decided to join the project, and entered into a joint venture arrangement with F. A. Pidgeon & Son. Obayashi Corporation of Japan was invited to participate on the basis of becoming the project head contractor. The joint venture appointed Indosuez Australia to arrange finance. Cameron Chisholm Nicol were appointed to design the complex. Construction commenced in September 1987 and was completed 27 months later on Christmas Eve 1989.
During the buildings construction over 600 people worked on the site, of concrete was used, 9,500 panes of glass were used, of granite was used and of marble was used. In December 1989 AMP Society
AMP Limited (formerly Australian Mutual Provident Society) is an Australian financial services company that operates in Australia and New Zealand. It offers superannuation and investment products, financial advice and banking services through '' ...
purchased the Waterfront Place complex from the joint venture partners.
The office tower is the dominant element of the complex. The architectural design outline of the tower is framed by matching elliptical curves with triangular projections in each of the east and west faces to create ten "corner" offices per typical floor. The elliptical shape maximises the views to the river and city.
The forty storey tower is of reinforced concrete construction and externally is clad in polished granite with double glazed solar tinted windows. The building has thirty six lettable floors with a Total Net Lettable Area of approximately . The major features of the lobby are granite floors and walls, water features, high ceilings
and polished steel columns.
Ownership
In December 1989 the property was purchased from the construction venture partners by the AMP Society
AMP Limited (formerly Australian Mutual Provident Society) is an Australian financial services company that operates in Australia and New Zealand. It offers superannuation and investment products, financial advice and banking services through '' ...
.
In 2003, the Ronan Property Group purchased a 20% stake from AMP.[
In 2004, ]Stockland
Stockland Corporation Limited is a diversified Australian property development company. It has business in shopping centers, residential estates, industrial estates and manufactured housing communities.
History
Stockland was founded in 1952 by ...
and Westpac
Westpac Banking Corporation, also known as Westpac, is an Australian multinational banking and financial services company headquartered at Westpac Place in Sydney.
Established in 1817 as the Bank of New South Wales, it acquired the Commerc ...
purchased the property, each holding 50%. Later Westpac sold its half to the Stockland Direct Office Trust Number One.[
In May 2011, the ]Australian Government Future Fund
The Future Fund is an independently managed sovereign wealth fund established in 2006 to strengthen the Australian Government's long-term financial position by making provision for unfunded superannuation liabilities for public servants that wil ...
purchased a 50% stake in the property from the Stockland Direct Office Trust Number One.
In June 2015, the Dexus
Dexus is an Australasian real assets manager and owner. Founded in 1984, it is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.
History
Dexus was listed by Deutsche Bank on the Australian Securities Exchange in 1984 as the Deutsche Diversified Tru ...
Property Group and Dexus Wholesale Property Fund purchased Waterfront Place and Eagle Street Pier retail complex for $635M from Stockland and the Future Fund.
Tenants
The building's tenants include many major Australian and international firms. Among the tenants are the 21st Governor-General of Australia, Bill Hayden
William George Hayden (23 January 1933 – 21 October 2023) was an Australian politician who served as the 21st governor-general of Australia from 1989 to 1996. He was Leader of the Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1977 to 198 ...
, Senator
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...
Ron Boswell
Ronald Leslie Doyle Boswell (born 9 December 1940) is a former Australian politician. He was a Senator for Queensland from 1983 to 2014, representing the National Party. He was the party's Senate leader from 1990 to 2007, a record term. He was ...
, and the Commonwealth Parliament of Australia.[Waterfront Place, Tenants Directory] The first federal cabinet meeting of the Rudd Government
Rudd Government may refer to the following Australian governments:
* Rudd government (2007–10)
* Rudd government (2013)
{{Dab ...
was held in the building on 6 December 2007.
See also
*List of tallest buildings in Brisbane
Brisbane, Australia's third largest city, is home to at least 360 completed high-rise buildings, at least 70 high-rise buildings over 100 metres in height, and has 19 completed skyscrapers (and 5 under construction 2024) which exceed the height ...
References
External links
*
* at Emporis
Emporis was a real estate data mining company with headquarters in Hamburg, Germany. The company collected data and photographs of buildings worldwide, which were published in an online database from 2000 to September 2022.
Emporis was acquired ...
{{Brisbane skyscrapers
Office buildings completed in 1989
Modernist architecture in Australia
Skyscraper office buildings in Brisbane
1990 establishments in Australia
Eagle Street, Brisbane