Construction has kicked-off on Queensland’s first vertical school set to call Brisbane’s city-fringe suburb of Fortitude Valley home.
Designed to maximise space on a compact urban footprint, Inner City North State Secondary College is also the first new inner-city state high school built in Brisbane in more than 50 years.
The seven-storey building, which forms part of the Queensland government’s $800 million Building Future Schools Fund, will offer both traditional classrooms and contemporary workshop collaborative spaces.
Stage one of the Fortitude Valley development, which includes the performing arts centre, sports centre, and main vertical building, will be delivered in three separable portions by Hutchinsons Builders.
“Schools have always been a big part of what we do,” Hutchinson Builders chairman Scott Hutchinson said.
“My great-grandfather, Jack Hutchinson I, worked on the Manly State School in 1913 and since then we have built more than 500 education projects.”
Cox Architecture was awarded the project through a design competition by the Department of Education, while the architectural documentation will be handled by ThomsonAdsett.
Arcadia Landscape Architecture is also part of the design team for the Brisbane project, which when complete will cater for up to 1500 students.
The catchment area for the new school includes city fringe suburbs New Farm, Teneriffe, Bowen Hills, Newstead, Spring Hill and Brisbane City.
Hutchies is also building a new vertical school at North Lakes State College with the Department of Education.
“As an organisation we’re all about building capacity and lifelong learning,” Hutchies’ managing director Greg Quinn said.
“And it’s great to think that we can contribute to developing the great minds of the future through projects like this one.
The new Fortitude Valley school will partner with the Queensland University of Technology to provide pathways for young Queenslanders.
It’s expected the construction phase will employ around 300 people.
The school is scheduled to open in 2020.
Source: theurbandeveloper.com