To begin with, Reel, Jay, Professor Hein and myself left just after 10:00am to head towards 123 Albert St. - one of three 6-star rated buildings in Brisbane. We hopped on a bus and headed in the direction of the downtown area. Once we arrived in downtown, we took a look around and saw that we were quite close to the SANTOS building, which is also a 6-star rated building. We were not picky as to which of the 3 buildings to visit first, so we decided to try SANTOS instead of 123 Albert St. since it was just a couple of blocks away. Here are some pictures of the exterior of the SANTOS building (taken later in the day as I did not have my camera with me in the morning.):
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| View of the SANTOS building from across the river. |
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| The colors of the building are derived from the colors of early homes in Brisbane. |
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| The feature on the outside of the building is designed to look like the blade of a bulldozer and is simply decorative. |
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| The top floor is the location of the tri-generation power plant and solar hot water heater, among other sustainable features. |
We walked up to the SANTOS building and one of the first things I noticed was that the building had been designed so that the main building was set in the shade (at least on the lower levels). This made for a nice atmosphere and I am sure reduces the cooling load in the summer time. We walked inside on the ground floor and after spending a few minutes walking around the lobby looking for someone who might be able to help us, we spotted a property manager sign and phone number. (There was no receptionist at the desk.) Professor Hein gave the number a call and after a 5 minute conversation, a lady named Shannon Ormond, who was quite knowledgeable about the sustainable features of the SANTOS building was headed down the elevator (a lift as they call them here) to meet us.
She met us in the lobby and after an exchange of names, she provided us with some handouts that gave a good number of facts about the different sustainable features of the building. This handout was quite detailed and is not provided to the public - a huge advantage to actually visiting the building in person! (No way would we have been able to find all of this information just from online research.) Shannon was not able to take us up to the 37th floor (top floor) of the building to show us where most all of the features are located (including a tri generation power plant, solar hot water system, and 120,000 liter rainwater recycling system for the bathrooms - there was maintenance going on and so for safety reasons we had to keep out), but she was able to take us downstairs to the basement where tenants of the building can use cyclist facilities for $25 a month. In this air-conditioned area are 300 bikes, 350 lockers, and 60 showers (men and women total) that help to promote environmentally friendly methods of traveling to work. Most noticeable of all was that this space looked almost 100% used. I'm not sure how riding a bike to work (ferry, train, and bus options are also available) would go over in America (apparently it's big in the western U.S.), but the people here in Brisbane seem to love and embrace these alternate modes of transportation. Coming from the U.S. I think it might seem more like a burden to have to take public transportation everywhere and not be able to drive yourself wherever you need to go, but here in Brisbane the folks seem to actually enjoy these amenities. The public transportation systems are quite efficient and reliable, which I am certain are two must-have qualities that make the folks here enjoy the service.
Continuing our tour of the building, Shannon took us up to the 36th floor (which took only a 5 second elevator ride) and we were privileged to take in a gorgeous view of the city along the Brisbane River. We were able to see more features of interior fit-out of the building, which most noticeably included no light switches (motion sensors automatically turn the lights on and then back off a few minutes after no motion is detected). Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me and did not get any pictures from the top of the building, but Jay did, so hopefully I can get some pictures from him to post here in the near future.
We asked several more questions to which Shannon had many knowledgeable answers. We departed from the building, each of us with her business card so that we can contact her later on in the semester if we have more questions about the SANTOS building. Thesis success!!
We ventured down to 123 Albert Street, but when we arrived there, the receptionist was not able to set up a tour, nor were the property mangers who were listed on the outside of the building (out of town for the next week and a half). This was not a real loss though, as we are only looking for 1 building in each city we visit to use as a case study in our research and the information and tour we received at SANTOS provided enough information to perform the case study for Brisbane. Satisfied with our information, we returned to the hotel around 12:30pm.
I changed out of my nicer clothes in exchange for some shorts and a t-shirt before heading back out in search of a temporary structure to use as a case study for class. I spent a good bit of time walking around the South Bank area before finding a structure that I could properly observe its purpose and see the workers using it. (I ended up choosing a 12-story lift fastened on the outside of a building under construction.) I took several pictures and even a short video before heading over to the downtown area to grab some lunch and have devo over the phone with Brittany.
I returned to the hotel around 4:00pm to shower and was ready in plenty of time for the bridge tour that Professor Hein would be leading at 5:00pm. We took a bus to the Cultural Arts Center along the South Bank where we started our tour of several bridges that cross the Brisbane River. Professor Hein, who designed bridges in his professional career before becoming a professor at Auburn, provided us with a brief history and synopsis of the type, use, and method used to transfer and support the load of each bridge that we came across. I had my camera with me, so instead of going into great detail about each of the bridges, here are some photographs of the bridges we toured:
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| Victoria Bridge |
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| Kurilpa Bridge - "tensegrity" design used for pedestrians and cyclists |
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| William Jolly Bridge |
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| Merivale Bridge |
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| Story Bridge |
We ended our interesting tour at the Story Bridge, above. It was fairly late in the evening, so we all parted ways in search of dinner. A large group of us (trying to avoid paying for a taxi) started walking in the direction of Woolloongabba (we were a couple miles away) looking for a bus stop that would take us back to the hotel area. After walking a good ways we finally found a stop, but the next bus was 15 minutes away. After quick look over the top of the next hill we saw McDonald's, which we knew was a couple of blocks away from our hotel, so we decided just to continue walking. It took us some time, but we made it back to the hotel safely and managed to get some great exercise! The restaurant under the hotel only had 2 burgers left ($10 burger night), so they could not accommodate our large crowd. The majority of the group continued on down the street to the Brisbane Brewery, but I just ran in Coles next to the hotel and grabbed a sandwich, as I was fairly tired and needed to get some laundering done before the flight to Melbourne in the morning.
Sandwich in hand, I went back up to the room and started my first of two loads of laundry to wash and dry. I did some blogging and work over the next several hours while my clothes were in the machine. I took the last load out around 1:00am (high efficiency washers and driers take a long time) and quickly fell asleep, excited to be heading off in the direction of a new city - Melbourne!!
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