Now You Can Live, Work And Play Without Ever Leaving Your Building

Sun Herald

Sunday October 17, 2004

By JENNIFER STYNES

BRISBANE hasn't always been a "city sophisticate". Until a couple of decades ago it was dominated by single houses on substantial blocks of land and everyone lived closer to the ground than the residents of inner-city Sydney and Melbourne.

But life changes in this case probably sparked by Expo 88 and Brisbane has started taking on urban aspects of its southern cousins.

In 2002, the number of people moving into the heart of Brisbane city was 4000. The following year that rose to 7000, a greater number per capita than into Sydney or Melbourne. They were all looking for superior city accommodation, and developers saw the vision splendid.

However, only the Sydney-based company Austcorp actually named its contribution Vision. Its planned $600 million, 72-level tower, designed by the architectural firm Buchan Group, is to be built on Mary and Margaret streets in the Brisbane CBD.

Austcorp and its chief executive Trevor Chappell have modest aspirations for Vision. "This is a unique building, a very beautiful building and one that will be regarded as among Australia's most outstanding statements of modern architecture," Mr Chappell said.

"Vision will be the quintessential expression of modern Brisbane, a mark of the city's maturity, energy and an architectural statement that holds its own on the world stage."

The problem for many people living in a city where the vast majority of the daytime denizens head home to the suburbs in the evening is that there's a sense of disconnectedness. Individual buildings are abuzz only for daylight hours if they're commercial and at night if they're residential rarely does the activity continue throughout day and night.

Austcorp has hit upon the idea of the "vertical village", a self-supporting community designed as a network of linked neighbourhoods within a single building.

The people who live there, if by chance they also worked in the building, would never have to leave. There will be a gym and a health centre, cinemas, European-style delis, a supermarket and newsagency. Residents' every need at least for food and wine, entertainment, exercise can be catered for in-house. In such an enveloping atmosphere will communities grow. If they must leave temporarily in search of green and growing things, the botanical gardens are right over the road.

"We have a lot of experience in master-planning communities," Mr Chappell said. "In this case it will be a vertical rather than lateral exercise. The things that create a vibrant environment are the combination of the live, work and play elements."

Within the 246-metre-high Vision will be 430 apartments on 55 floors, about 29,000 square metres of commercial space, a three-level podium for shops, cafes, restaurants, health and lifestyle facilities and a major public plaza at ground level, creating a mid-block pedestrian promenade between the streets.

The building will be populated by residents, workers and tourists, which means it will keep buzzing.

Two internal lifts will transport up to 1 million tourists a year to the 2000 square metre public observation deck on the 60th level.

Mr Chappell said it wasn't easy to find a site big enough to accommodate such a building.

All that remains is for the council "to consider the net benefits" when it debates the "shadows that may be cast on the botanical gardens in winter".

Austcorp plans a staged marketing release for the project, with the residential apartments to come on the market in early 2005, followed by the launch of the commercial and retail leasing in early 2006.

Another Brisbane development that has benefited from the surge to the city is Skyline, which will be in the riverside precinct near the Story Bridge.

"The response to the announcement late in July has been nothing short of staggering," said Kevin Seymour, spokesman for the developers, The Seymour Group and Ariadne Australia. Buyers have committed to about 63 per cent of the 190 apartments in the 47-level project and no two-bedroom units are left.

Of course, there's always the two remaining penthouses, with their own lap pool, entertainment area and two-storey atrium at $3.5 million each.