Frenkel Partners Lawyers were looking to relocate to a brand-new space in William Street, and they needed a design and build team who could get a deep understanding of what they required in their new office, now & into the future.
The Big Problem
Frenkel Partners’ had a really tight time-frame to move into their new space. The whole floor was about 2,200 sqm, and we still had to cut the floorplate into two tenancies, which entails a lot of tenancy separation works, including a fire-rated intertenancy wall, fire break partitioning, separation of services, separation of switchboard & separation of the air-conditioning layout. All this had to be done first to enable them to then begin the fitout works, to move in. We very quickly realised that unless these works were done concurrently, by a syncopated team that understood all the eccentricities of the building, the project wouldn’t be able to be done to their timing. The building was fitted with state of the art low energy consumption lighting, run by data controls & low energy consumption air-conditioning systems giving it a NABERS rating of six stars (world class), which meant that they needed our A team who could implement the fitout works & the tenancy separation works concurrently for Frenkel partners to have any chance of getting in by Christmas.
What we found
The 2,200 sqm floorplate needed to be separated into 2 tenancies first. All the building services needed to be separated before any of the fitout works specific to Frenkel Partners Lawyers could proceed.
How we solved it
We used an integrated approach, all the base building separation services in conjunction with the design of all the new services for the Frenkel Partners tenancy. This integrated approach allowed us to solve the separation in the building permit, the engineering for the compliance of electrical, air-conditioning, fire services including EWIS (Emergency Warning and Intercommunication Systems), & sprinklers. It also ensured that we achieved all the correct paths of travel compliantly. We were able to separate out the toilet & amenities block to allow for a split tenancy. We also installed executive toilets in the Frenkel Partners’ tenancy, so clients when they came did not have to traverse through the entire tenancy to access the facilities. Using our expert design & build approach, we were able to rapidly develop the design, have all the engineering signed off and able to start within two weeks of signoff. The feedback from the building managers was “WOW!” 32 offices built, many banks of workstations, four boardrooms, kitchens & meeting rooms all constructed within eight weeks on site, leading right up to Christmas, for a handover on Christmas day – they said they had never seen anything like it.
The testament to that is that the integration of design & build services, with a team that don’t just notionally have their role, but absolutely passionately care about problem-solving, getting it right and moving the needle forward, combined with a rapid roll out to meet the timeframe so that the client can get into their tenancy faster.