BHP Billiton Centre August 2004

This case study was written at the time when InfraBuild (formerly Liberty OneSteel) was part of OneSteel. In that context, in some instances within this case study reference may be made to OneSteel.

www.infrabuild.com 300PLUS® BHP Billiton Centre

BHP BILLITON CENTRE

CLIENT BHP Billiton

PROJECT MANAGER Carson Group

ARCHITECT Lyon Architects

ENGINEER The Bonacci Group

FACILITIES PLANNER Woods Bagot

BUILDER Grocon Pty Ltd

STEEL FABRICATOR Alfasi Steel

STEEL DETAILING PlanIt Design Group

FIRE SAFETY ENGINEERING Arup Fire

PHOTOGRAPHY Ian McKenzie onesteel market mills - case study page 1 300PLUS® BHP Billiton Centre

The BHP Billiton Centre – showcasing structural steel as a 21st century material with innovative design combined with cost and time saving initiatives.

The exciting and quarters, BHP Billiton confirmed that they intended to “make best use of steel landmark $600 million in the design, to showcase steel as a QV project will create 21st century material that lends itself two commercial office to innovative design solutions.” buildings, two The company also required that their purpose-built accommodation would residential towers, car also incorporate environmentally parking for sustainable features. Double glazed STRUCTURAL STEEL IN approximately 1500 windows, waterless cooling towers, light THE DESIGN PHASE dimming systems, and state of the art Early in the base building design phase, cars and a three level technologies, materials and finishes are Woods Bagot, appointed by BHP Billiton podium of retail stores all contributing to this aim. as their Interior and Facilities Planning on the site Consultant worked in association with Lyons’ architects to maximise the design of the old Queen STRIKING FAÇADE IN potential of the floors. STEEL AND GLASS Hospital Sarah Kay of Woods Bagot explained Lyons, architects for the building, worked that covers four that: “we were able to comment on the on the design in conjunction with design as it affected the potential fit-out street frontages in structural engineers, The Bonacci Group. of the space, advising on such things Melbourne’s CBD. Adrian Stanic of Lyons said that the main as preferred compactus zones and façade of the building embodied the tenancy stair locations, creating an contemporary idea of transparency and efficient and fully integrated building openness. “A striking 28 storey clear fit-out design solution.” he residential, commercial and retail glass façade, with spandrel steel panels village will extend Melbourne’s vibrant T expressed as a layer behind the clear lane-way culture to the north, contributing glass curtain wall, forms the main façade to the fabric and colour of the city. of the building,” he explained. Within this project is the recently “This bright polished aluminium and completed BHP Billiton Centre that will glass facade is folded down and out over contain the high profile global the lower levels of the building to form headquarters for BHP Billiton. In addition a series of dramatic glazed canopies of to 21 floors of office space, the building varying size. Framed in steel, this folding contains three retail levels, three levels of form gives the curtain wall a machine-like car parking and is surrounded by a steel- appearance of a thin folded glass and framed glass clad podium. BHP Billiton metal skin. This simple gesture connects will occupy 25,000 square metres of the tower, lower levels of the building floor space in the new building. and the street,” Mr Stanic said. Discussing plans for their new head-

onesteel market mills - case study page 2 300PLUS® BHP Billiton Centre

The column-free floor plate of the These beams, in turn, support a 120 mm locations, they were generally able to be base building allowed the fit out thick un-propped composite slab on circular, and of a diameter and location design by Woods Bagot to incorporate profiled steel decking which was laid such that they did not need stiffening.” a continuous subdivision module under the fabricator’s contract. The shear that allows all work point types to studs were welded to the top flanges of In addition, the time taken to erect an 18 be interchangeable across the space the beams on site, also under the metre structural steel floor beam was less and throughout the tenancy. fabricator’s contract along with the 2,700 than an 18 metre concrete beam, which tonnes of structural steelwork. requires a greater volume of concrete, and longer pouring time, also contributed to a faster program.

Innovative long span floor framing and an The concrete encased steel columns eccentrically located side service core delivered around the perimeter of the building, incorporated OneSteel 300PLUS® a highly flexible, column free workspace. 200UC46 erection columns, which were able to support one level of steelwork “The side core creates an uninterrupted The 47,500 square metres of profiled and construction load above the level of east/west length in the building. By steel decking used on the building concrete encasement. providing a central community zone with incorporated a blue anti-glare coating. Concrete column encasement around the an inter-tenancy stair, the building was This was the first time this new ends of the beams falling on the column effectively divided in two. The enormous Australian invention had been used grids were poured at the same time as length of the building is managed by a in the world. combination of angled corridors broken the slab concrete to ensure deflection at intervals with points of interest and Nat Bonacci of The Bonacci Group characteristics of those beams under the natural light throughout,” Ms Kay said. commented that “BHP Billiton set weight of the wet floor slab were similar stringent deflection levels, similar to to the beams not on the column grid. The final base building plan, with its those more commonly used for beams of large column-free internal space and 10 metre span. To meet these levels the symmetrical layout, facilitated a beams on the BHP Billiton tenancy floors FURTHER COST & TIME sophisticated flexible and efficient fit-out were OneSteel 300PLUS® 800WB122, SAVING INITIATIVES design creating maximum light and while those for the remaining office At tender stage Grocon asked steel brightness within. levels were typically 300PLUS® fabricator, Alfasi Steel Constructions and 700WB115.” The 45 metre long reinforced concrete their nominated supplier of OneSteel products, to explore ways of further eccentric jump-formed service core is the Nat Bonacci went on to say: “For efficient reducing the cost and construction time. longest to be jumped in one operation on routing of air-conditioning and other an Australian building site. services, the floor beams were provided The collaboration between Alfasi and with standardised notched cut-outs at This service core supports 18.3 metre their steel distributor reduced the each end that reduced the beam depth to OneSteel 300PLUS® Welded Beams, clear handling of the many hundreds of steel about half, and were reinforced with spanning from the walls of the core to beams by eliminating delivery from the relatively inexpensive stiffening. Where the perimeter of the building. warehouse of the steel distributor to the cut-outs were necessary at some other fabricator’s shop prior to transport to site.

onesteel market mills - case study page 3 300PLUS® BHP Billiton Centre

The steel distributor provided the beams FIRE ENGINEERING cut-to-length and cambered, and with all One of the many benefits of the necessary penetrations, copes and A fire engineering study for the project, bolt holes. To reduce handling they carried out by Arup Fire, determined that the composite system is that provided a temporary fenced-off area for only the floor beams above the two retail it did not require propping, the Alfasi crews to carry out fabrication levels were required to be sprayed with work, welding the necessary fitments and an appropriate fire-protective coating. providing for faster stiffeners to the beams, prior to direct Those above the office and carpark delivery to site. levels, by far the greater proportion construction and an of the building, used bare steel beams un-cluttered working Furthermore, because sealed windows utilising the inherent fire resistance of were used and the air-conditioning 300PLUS® steel. environment. system kept out moisture, the structural steel framing did not need painting. Tony O’Meagher of Arup Fire said that: This meant the cost of painting and the “This assessment was based on the extra associated costs of handling and performance of similar types of transporting the steelwork to the paint composite building frames in full scale shop were saved. fire tests with office fuel loads. Enhancing the sprinkler system to Ricky Hains, Director of PlanIt Design increase its reliability reduced the Group, oversaw the steel detailing for the likelihood of a major fire developing. The project carried out by his staff in the analysis of the structure also determined Alfasi fabrication workshop. This that the size and strength of the concrete arrangement facilitated communication encased steel columns was sufficient to between the fabricator and the detailer maintain their structural stability during and enabled prompt resolution of issues and after a fire.” as they arose.

A 3-D model was created and DXF files were used to directly control profile cutting and order lists for the profiled steel decking and the special folded angle edge-form were also produced by the software.

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This publication has been prepared by OneSteel Market Mills, an operating business group of OneSteel Manufactruing Pty Limited ABN 42 004 651 325. Please note that any specifications or technical data referred to in this publi- cation are subject to change and/or variation or improvement without notice and no warranty as to their suitability for any use is made. Users of this publication - to ensure accuracy and adequacy for their purposes - are requested to check the information provided in this publication to satisfy themselves as to its appropriateness and not to rely on the information without first doing so. Unless required by law, the company cannot accept any responsibility for onesteel market mills - case study page 4 any loss, damage or consequence resulting from the use of this publication. Photographs shown are representative only of typical applications, current at August 2004. This publication is not an offer to trade and shall not form any part of the trading terms in any transaction. ©Copyright 2004. OneSteel Manufactruing Pty Limited ABN 42 004 651 325. Registered Trademark of OneSteel Manufactruing Pty Limited ABN 42 004 651 325, 300PLUS®.