The National Australia Bank (NAB) has moved into one of Victoria’s premium commercial hubs, the Melbourne Docklands, with plans to tenant a second major building in the area.

The NAB will be the major tenant of the CBUS building, one of two buildings that make up Bourke Junction on the corner of Bourke Street and Wurindjeri Way. The 15 story building includes two levels of car park, bicycle parking, child care facilities, retail areas and NAB office space.

D&E was awarded the mechanical contracts to design and construct the base building, followed by the build-only fitout. Senior Project manager Kelvin Richards oversaw the project, assisted by Project Manager/Engineer Matt Plozza. It was the largest project D&E had undertaken up to that time, with a peak of 135 workers on site in mid 2012.

“Although we started working on the project in August 2011, the build time was relatively short at 14 months, which was a challenge,” Matt said. “We used Fantech because of their high quality products, technical support and engineering expertise which assisted us in delivering the project in the short time frame.” Fantech supplied 114 axial and centrifugal fans and 14 custom-made roof cowls.

Designed to achieve a 6 Star Green Star rating for the base building and 5 Stars for the fitout, the building has a number of environmentally sustainable features. These include a passive chilled beam system with a chilled water central plant, split to produce high and low temperature chilled water to serve chilled beams and Air Handling Units respectively. Other green initiatives in the building include an energy efficient facade, high performance solar glazing and a black water treatment plant.

Approximately 3,000 chilled beams and 50km of copper pipe were installed, a massive undertaking for D&E as this was their first chilled beam project.

A critical part of the installation was removing any potential damage to the chilled beams by chemically treating the water that is used in the process.

“Another interesting aspect of the job was the commissioning,” Matt said. “Due to the tight completion date, most air and water systems were balanced floor-by-floor using temporary fan and pump rigs running from temporary power boards, before the roof-top plantroom was completed.”

The building was completed in April 2013.