DAVID Hooper has Brisbane’s best, or worst, job depending on your head for heights.
The veteran crane operator spends his days almost 300m above ground as he and two dogmen help complete what will soon be Brisbane’s tallest building, Meriton’s Infinity tower on Herschel St.
Arriving when the project was still nine parking levels below ground, Mr Hooper’s view has improved daily as the 81-storey skyscraper has risen to 262m above ground.
With his cab on top of the building giving spectacular panoramic views of Brisbane and beyond, he said there was no doubt he was blessed.
“It’s definitely the best seat in the house,” he said.
“You can see the Gold Coast buildings like Soul and Q1 on a clear day.”
Nevertheless, the job of lifting tons of materials up the tower can’t be taken lightly and it gets particularly tricky when it’s windy.
“It’s definitely the best seat in the house,” he said.
“You can see the Gold Coast buildings like Soul and Q1 on a clear day.”
Nevertheless, the job of lifting tons of materials up the tower can’t be taken lightly and it gets particularly tricky when it’s windy.
Though the Infinity project is the highest he has worked on, Mr Hooper isn’t daunted by the slow climb to and from his perch.
“You’re there from day one and then every couple of months it will jump 20 or 25 metres,” he said.
“It’s a gradual thing. You’re not thrown in at 300 metres. It might be a different story if you just showed up on the day and there it was.”
Once completed towards the end of the year, Infinity will house 549 residential dwellings, which are now being marketed.
It will replace another Meriton structure, Soleil on the opposite side of town, as the city’s tallest tower.
Infinity looks set to hold the title for the foreseeable future, or at least until Billbergia’s 111+222 project in Mary St gets under way.
That skyscraper has been approved to reach 274m, which is the upper limit allowed in the Brisbane CBD under air space regulations
262: Height in metres
11,000: Panes of glass
9: Below ground parking levels
81: Levels in total
549: Total dwellings
8: Number of lifts
Original article published at www.news.com.au by Andrew Macdonald The Sunday Mail (Qld) 12/5/2013