This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
THE University of Queensland’s second Brisbane CBD campus will make its home in the state heritage listed National Bank.
With a development application lodged with the City of Brisbane, the new campus will be span the combined 4,578sqm of the bank at 308 Queen Street, and the adjacent office building at 88 Creek street.
UQ purchased both sites in 2019, for $47.4 million, as part of a larger $206.5 million investment by the university for two new precincts and the new city hub.
“It is our ambition to replicate our exemplary restoration and maintenance of the heritage-listed 293 Queen Street building,” said Peter Høj, vice-chancellor and president of UQ.
The National Bank was built between 1881 and 1924 and was designed by Francis Drummond Greville Stanley and was the home of NAB for many years until the mid-2000s.
“The two buildings are in prime location, close to many of the city’s largest firms, as well as key public transport and CBD amenities.”
This will be the university’s second CBD based campus, after the first was completed at 293 Queen Street at another restored heritage building, in February 2018.
The Classical Revival style bank site sits on the corner of Creek and Queen Streets in Brisbane’s CBD financial quarter, sitting between the commercial Golden Triangle and the Queen Street retail precinct.
The refurbishment of one of the oldest surviving bank buildings in the city has been designed by BVN, with work, to include the refurbishment and restoration of the bank’s stone façade.
Further works will include internal fit out across four floors, with installation of new end-of-trip facilities at the basement level of the Creek Street site and a new shared lift corridor on the ground floor of 308 Queen Street.
The campus is a short walk from Central Train Station, and other public transport access points, including the King George Central Bus Station.
Høj expects the new CBD campus will help “build even stronger connections with business and government, further strengthening UQ’s attraction to post-grad and executive students.”
