Eastern Campus redevelopment 3B

Overview

The Eastern Campus redevelopment (ECR3B), an exciting opportunity to unite and reshape the eastern sector of the Melbourne Campus includes the refurbishment and upgrade of existing staff accommodations and teaching spaces.

The project supports the University's Future Ready objectives of Lively connected campuses and ethically and sustainably managed resources while directly enabling two of the stated Future Ready Strategic Focus Areas i.e. Outstanding student experience and Brilliant Basics.

The ECR stage 3B is a precinct upgrade to the north east sector of the core campus involving the Donald Whitehead, Martin, and Social Sciences buildings plus Glenn College. The project improved the existing infrastructure to accommodate projected growth through the construction of new collaborative teaching, research, and work spaces to support rapidly changing research and teaching methodologies.

The adaptive reuse of existing spaces is central to the Melbourne Campus Masterplan strategy of providing a financially and environmentally sustainable response to the University's infrastructure requirements.

Project Status

Package 1: Relocation of staff and decommissioning the Donald Whitehead Building - completed July 2015.

Package 2: Donald Whitehead Building demolition - completed February 2016.

Package 3: Creation of Moot Court (Social Sciences 232) and five new computer labs in Glenn College - completed February 2016.

.Package 4: Donald Whitehead Building Refurbishment - completed March 2017.

Package 5: Martin Building Levels 3 and 4 refurbishment - completed October 2017.

Benefits

• innovative, dynamic learning and research environments that support future learning and research requirements and an outstanding student experience
• research excellence by collocation of staff and students in a single facility
• student employability through the creation of specialist research hubs that attract industry partnerships
• assets and infrastructure upgrade that enhance La Trobe's competitiveness in the tertiary market
• innovative workspace environment that re-imagines working smarter
• infrastructure that supports the University meeting its Environmental Sustainability commitments.

Design features

• new external facades on the Donald Whitehead Building will provide the La Trobe Business School with a bold corporate identity, maximise the sense of space, extend social spaces and provide views into interior sections.
• sensitivity to the existing architecture of the Melbourne Campus will be reflected in the new facades.
• Donald Whitehead Building connected to the Martin Building to create a seamless transition to one facility.
• a new atrium on level 1 of the Donald Whitehead Building interlinking two floors of teaching space.
• a new main entry to the Donald Whitehead Building with a grand amphitheatre style stairway leading to level 2.
• teaching spaces inspired by the recently completed Melbourne Campus 'The Learning Commons' featuring flat floor teaching spaces, casual breakout areas embedded into the teaching areas, and wall-to-wall writable surfaces to enable 'design thinking'.
• flexible internal walls enabling teaching spaces to be easily reconfigured for multi-purpose functions.
• additional teaching spaces in Social Sciences to meet projected Business School flexible teaching space demands and College of ASSC Outreach programs.
• informal learning spaces where spaces not formally designated for teaching/learning e.g. corridors are made into attractive, inspiring, usable spaces for students to work in. This approach has proved popular in recent projects such as The Learning Commons.
• specialist labs including a (share) trading room for Business School students, SAS Analytical Innovation Lab and the RECCSI Lab.
• contemporary staff / student workplace accommodations reflecting modern industry workplace accommodation and collaborative working trends.
• smart Building Technology utilising information technology to optimise overall building performance thereby reducing global environmental impact.
• environmentally sustainable design initiatives including thermally efficient building fabrics, rain water harvesting, photovoltaic panels for energy storage, smart building technology, responsible waste disposal/recycling, sustainably-sourced products, and reticulation of campus High Temperature Hot Water flow to generate cooling via an absorption chiller plant.

Project consultants