UQ Ipswich stage two planning progresses
Planning is advanced for the second stage of development of the University of Queensland's Ipswich campus, to follow the opening of the $17 million first stage for students in February 1999.
The second stage is due for completion a year later, by first semester, 2000.
The 25-hectare campus, which is 1.4km from the Ipswich city centre, has a history dating from 1878, with 17 buildings heritage-listed.
University construction manager Peter Sampson of the University's Property and Facilities section said planning for stage two would develop buildings in the centre of the campus. The objective is to create a "village" to serve as the social and administrative heart of the campus, which is expected to accommodate 2000 students by 2001.
The University will soon call building tenders for stage two, which is to the south of the stage one works and includes the adaptive reuse of the central building complex of the old Challinor Centre.
Mr Sampson said stage two would provide the University with an additional 5000 sq metres of usable floor space, compared with stage one, which yielded 4000 sq metres of floor space.
It required the rehabilitation of eight buildings in a heritage precinct, including the earliest buildings on the campus, and construction of a twin block new general purpose building.
Mr Sampson said development of stage two involved sympathetic compatible use of the heritage site. The one new building in the project would replace the disused former nurses' quarters which were not heritage listed.
The new four-storey building has been split to form two connecting wings to reflect the radial planning philosophy of the original site and provide visual continuity between the existing heritage-listed buildings. It features a cloister to its western side, picking up the theme of the University's cloister at its St Lucia campus.
Other major buildings in the second stage of the development include:
o Building 13, the former Administration block, which will become a Faculty building;
o Building 28, the former hospital building will also be adapted as a Faculty building with academic and administrative offices; and
o Building 14, the former Recreation Hall, which will become a multi-use space for teaching and learning activities.
The former laundry will become the student refectory; the former kitchen will be adapted as two seminar rooms, while the former bakery will be reused as a seminar room.
Mr Sampson said building 22, the former boiler house and engine room which had been unused for some years, would be secured at this stage. This building, which could retain at least one of its two Babcock and Willcox boilers, had the potential and character for recreational, performing arts or jazz club use. Its tall brick chimney was a local landmark.
The development extends to the re-use of open areas of the site, including landscape rehabilitation of the formal gardens and continuation of site services, roadworks, pedestrian parkways and associated parking.
Mr Sampson said important landscape elements such as the circular drive to building 13 and the forecourt to building 28, stands of major trees, stone kerbing material, the ha ha wall footprint (a European-style trench wall to retain the view) and retaining walls would be retained in the campus plan.
The University has appointed several key consultants for construction of stage two. They include Devine Erby Mazlin (architects and planners); Landscan Pty Ltd (landscape architects); Bruce Buchanan (heritage architect); Gutteridge Haskins and Davey Pty Ltd (hydraulics engineers); MultiTech Solutions Pty Ltd (mechanical and electrical engineers); Rawlinsons (quantity surveyors); Ove Arup (structural and civil engineers); and EMF Griffith (lift engineers).
Media contact: Mr Sampson, telephone 07 336 51113 <
