Uniting Bowden Brae
- Civil
Partnership
At Northrop Consulting Engineers, our Wollongong office really values our strong relationship with the Illawarra Retirement Trust. they’ve been a part of the Illawarra for over 50 years.
We’ve worked on various projects together, offering multidisciplinary services on most of those projects. For the Parkside at IRT Pioneer Place, we provided civil and structural services. This partnership showcases our shared commitment to enhancing community living standards and delivering top-notch projects.
Project
The 2018 upgrade to Parkside at IRT Pioneer Place aimed to provide modern, high-quality living with luxury apartments and amenities. It fostered community integration with shared spaces like a public café. High demand saw most apartments sold by mid-2018. The design featured high-quality materials and unique elements like handmade bricks and Corten steel artwork, significantly improving the architectural beauty of the building, the living experience for residents and the community.
Delivery
Our team worked collaboratively with the IRT project managers and the architect to develop an economic design that was readily buildable.
When the contractor introduced an alternative floor system as a cost-saving for the project we worked through this proposed change with them and updated our documentation to suit. This brought numerous new challenges to the project but we were able to develop solutions that assisted the project.
The striking feature of the building is the handmade masonry bricks to the façade. We worked with the sub-contractor and brick supplier to develop a suitable mortar mix that would work with the unique glazed brick and achieve the required bed joint depth.
Impact
The Parkside building is a striking feature on the edge of the Wollongong CBD. IRT’s commitment to providing a building that is not just a retirement living facility but a beautiful building is testament to their commitment to good developments that impact the community in a positive way on a number of levels.
Parkside is a great building. Not without its challenges, this was a project where everyone’s commitment was rewarded and the result is well worth it!
Rod Pratt, Principal, Structural Engineer, Northrop Consulting Engineers
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