Dr Chau Chak Wing Building

Not to be confused with Chau Chak Wing Museum.

Dr Chau Chak Wing Building is a business school building of the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. It is the first building in Australia designed by Canadian American architect Frank Gehry.

Dr Chau Chak Wing Building
Dr Chau Chak Wing Building
General information
Status	Completed
Type	Public
Address	14–28 Ultimo Road
Town or city	Ultimo, New South Wales
Country	Australia
Construction started	mid 2012
Completed	11 November 2014; 10 years ago (2014-11-11)
Opened	2 February 2015; 10 years ago (2015-02-02)
Cost	$180 million
Owner	University of Technology Sydney
Technical details
Floor count	12
Floor area	16,030 m2 (172,500 sq ft)
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Frank Gehry
Architecture firm	Gehry Partners
Structural engineer	Arup
Services engineer	Aecom (also the brickwork design engineer)
Other designers	Daryl Jackson, Robin Dyke
Main contractor	Lendlease
Other information
Seating type	Seminar rooms and classrooms
Parking	177 bicycles and 20 cars

Description

The tower is named after Chau Chak Wing, a Chinese businessman who donated $20 million for the building's construction. The "Dr" in the building's name refers to honorary doctorates that have been conferred on Chau. The 13-storey tower provides teaching, learning, research and office accommodation for approximately 1,256 students and 326 academic staff.^[1] The building's design is based on the idea of a tree-house structure.

The building's façade, which was made of 320,000 custom-designed bricks, is described as the "squashed brown paper bag". Frank Gehry said, "Maybe it's a brown paper bag, but it's flexible on the inside, there's a lot of room for changes or movement."^[2]

An entrance from The Goods Line, a pedestrian pathway, is located on the eastern border of the site.

Construction

The building is constructed from 320,000 custom-designed bricks

Early works on site and archaeological excavation were carried out from late 2011 until early 2012. The building was constructed by Lendlease which was appointed in November 2012.^[3]

Construction of the building started in late 2012.^[1][4] The building structure was topped-out in December 2013 and construction was completed in November 2014.^[5] The official opening took place on 2 February 2015.^[6][7][8]

Awards

The building has won the following awards:

• 2015 AIQS Innovation Project Award^[9]
• 2015 Australian Timber Design Award People's Choice Award^[10]
• 2015 Good Design Awards: Product Design Hardware and Building^[11]
• 2015 Think Brick Awards: Horbury Hunt Commercial Award^[12]
• 2015 Master Builders Association NSW Awards: Tertiary Buildings Construction over $100m^[13]
• 2016 Australia Engineering Excellence Awards Bradfield Award^[14]

See also

• New South Wales portal

• Buildings and architecture of Sydney
• List of works by Frank Gehry