Federation Square

Like the Opera House is to Sydney, Federation Square is Melbourne’s striking new arts, events, hospitality and City Centre meeting place showpiece. Set on a 3.8 hectare site on the banks of the Yarra River and expected to attract around 6 million visitors each year, Higgins proudly played a major role in this massive Multiplex project.

The innovative and somewhat controversial design by Lab Architecture Studio and Bates Smart Architects, provided its fair share of challenges for Higgins (and all concerned) who worked around the clock to keep up with the demanding program.

Federation Square consists of five major buildings including the Museum of Australian Art (MOAA), SBS and Crossbar whose exteriors display a refractive geometrical form dressed in sandstone, zinc and glass. According to Higgins Project Manager, John Micallef, the interior spaces are infinitely more complex. 

Soaring ceilings, skylights, walls and windows of every conceivable shape and staircases (one of which climbed 5-stories and took nearly 6 months to complete!) were just some of the challenges faced by the Higgins team who also had to manage access issues with the vast array of equipment needed to perform their specialist tasks.

The most comprehensive of its kind in Australia, the MOAA includes 20 purpose-built galleries that house much of the country’s outstanding indigenous and non-indigenous art, the SBS building is a high-tech structure comprising broadcasting facilities and administration offices and the Crossbar, running between an atrium and an amphitheatre, is a café and restaurant precinct enclosed by a specially designed mass of perforated metal.

John Micallef is immensely proud of his team who worked tirelessly under enormous pressure over the course of this epic project.

 

Division: New Construction
Region: VIC
Customer: Multiplex