Building Reform: Stop asking 'who' and start asking 'why'

One of the most rewarding parts of my job as a Fire Safety Engineer is being part of something that so many people need, use and enjoy in their daily lives. Whether it’s the buildings we work in, the bridges we cross or the tunnels we travel in, the creativity and dedication of design and construction teams is undeniable. And even as members of that construction community, we often forget to take notice of the small details that make the structures we live in function and stand out.

That’s why it was so great to see this post from Craig Underwood at Assetwize on Linkedin last week. He simply went for a coffee at George Place and took the time to notice the lights in the atrium there. Check them out - they are very cool indeed.

At the moment, all the news about the construction industry seems pretty miserable. With the public, government and industry all asking for reform, we’re seeing a lot of people question ‘who’ should be changing, ‘who’ is responsible, and exactly what needs to change. But no one has really asked "why'.

Craig’s post made me stop and ask why. Not why is this happening to our industry, or why should it change. But why will I support and work in this industry despite its flaws? And I realised, it has a lot to do with those lights in George Place – or more specifically, the process it took to get them there.

George Place – The Vision

What most people don’t realise is that this lobby space would have looked very different if it wasn’t for the vision of the client ISPT and the efforts of the design team to implement that vision into the space.

ISPT’s vision for George Place was:

“...to create a unique precinct that delivers progressive and engaging experiences for our customers. George Place features food and beverage offerings, social hubs and indigenous artwork, and the expansive lobby supports a range of events for the community to enjoy where customers have access to a business lounge, meetings rooms, flex workspace, end of trip facilities and wellness space.”

To achieve this, the architect proposed the connection of three multi-storey office buildings to provide a central atrium space.

Sounds simple right? Well, from a fire safety point of view… let’s just say, it was quite the challenge.

A few technical challenges...

For those interested in the “technical stuff”, read on. For those who aren’t, just know it took some serious problem solving by the whole team, and skip down to the “how we made it happen” section.

The buildings were as follows:

• 345 George Street a 16 storey office building constructed in 1988;
• 363 George Street a 30 storey office building constructed in 2000;
• 24 York Street a 7 storey heritage building constructed in 1878.

To make things really interesting, the structure of 24 York Street features timber floors and cast-iron columns - both of which do not react particularly well in a fire situation.

Furthermore, the fire safety systems of 24 York Street we upgraded during the construction of 363 George Street in 2000. Quite sensibly at the time, the infrastructure for the fire hydrant and sprinkler systems were centralised, and the systems were both shared between 363 George Street and 24 York Street.

Who would have imagined that someone would want to connect a third building?

345 George Street was probably the least notable of the three. However, prior to the George Place proposal, it was a separate building that would now be connected to the other two buildings by the new atrium at the lower levels.

So, what made this so complicated? Well, here are a few problems that we had to work through and how we solved them:

1. The structure of 24 York Street - to preserve the heritage nature of 24 York Street we separated this building from the atrium. This meant providing a combination of toughened glazing with wall-wetting sprinklers placed behind existing heritage windows, sliding fire doors and alterations of the atrium glazing line to isolate heritage timber window frames in the facade. We even modelled a fire equivalent to the size of a car fire to demonstrate we wouldn’t get fire spread from the atrium to 24 York Street.
2. Fire Brigade intervention - imagine if you were a fire-fighter turning up to an incident at four in the morning and were faced with three buildings over a city block featuring two hydrant systems and two sprinkler systems between them - how on earth would you know where to hook up your hoses? Good question - the solution was to provide a new centralised fire control centre with clear diagrams and signage and undertake extensive liaison with Fire & Rescue NSW.
3. Evacuation management - Evacuating the atrium space would be complex enough as there were multiple entry and exits points but managing the evacuation of three towers through a new atrium in which there could be an event for up to 400 people required a complete reprogramming of the evacuation regime and extensive testing and commissioning at the end of the project.

So, what about those lights?

The main feature of the project was the roof - a timber-like tropher arrangement with irregular shaped openings accented by a lighting display to achieve the right mood for the space.

A quick glance at the building code would reveal that the recommended fire safety measures for an atrium feature the following:

• Sprinkler protection of the roof or fire-rated roof structure; and
• Smoke exhaust

Both fire safety features directly clashed with the requirements for the roof - the lights simply weren’t going to work if the team followed the DtS provisions in the BCA.

So, how did we make it happen?

To work with the design, we undertook extensive fire and smoke modelling to demonstrate that occupants were able to evacuate before the onset of untenable conditions. This required modelling occupant movements over a number of scenarios with exits blocked to simulate a fire in that location.

After the first round of results, it needed to be safer. So, we decided to introduce another exit on the balcony level to improve occupant flow and achieve an appropriate safety factor of 1.5 as recommended by the International Fire Engineering Guidelines. This required some careful architectural integration, but it was worth it. Because yes, we were needed to fulfil ISTP’s vision (and get these lights working) but occupant safety always comes first.

Many believe that Fire Engineers just see issues and come in to ‘engineer it out’, but that’s not true. At its core, Fire Engineering is science, informed by human behaviour, driven by fantastic design. A convergence of so many different kinds of people, priorities and thinking all working hard towards a common goal.

In this case, the common goal was the lights – and it took hundreds of hours encompassing modelling, reporting, meetings, peer review and Fire & Rescue NSW input to coordinate, agree and document on the level of safety. The process was transparent, the stakeholders were informed, and the client was extremely happy that their vision became a reality.

It’s a tumultuous time for our industry

I’m very proud to have been a part of George Place. It’s been a year since it opened, but every time I hear about it, it reminds me of what can happen when an entire project team unites behind a single, ambitious vision.

However, I suspect that over the next few years, as we push to improve ethics and regulation in our industry, we’ll see fewer projects like George Place get backing. But that’s why it’s so important to highlight how successful George Place was. It unlocked the potential of three separate buildings and created a space that would greet people as they head to work, come together at events or stop to have a sip of coffee.

So, while I think it’s important that we continue our conversation about how we can improve the industry, I think we should also highlight all of the magical times when people have come together to champion ambitious design without compromising safety. When they’ve been ethical and transparent, despite the setbacks and added costs. And when a project team has created a structure that genuinely brings people joy in their day.

Thanks Craig for that post. And make sure you look up next time you are in George Place. Big thanks also to all those involved - it was fantastic working with you.

Is there a project you’ve worked on where ambitious design was coupled with outstanding safety solutions? Let me know in the comments.