Minister for Planning Richard Wynne and Lendlease Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Steven McCann have opened the group’s new Victorian home at One Melbourne Quarter.
Occupying levels four to six of the 13-storey building, One Melbourne Quarter is considered the first commercial tower to be delivered in the 2.5-hectare Melbourne Quarter precinct on Collins Street. To accommodate for the roughly 400 Lendlease employees that will soon call the building home, Lendlease brings workplace health and wellbeing to the forefront.
A key feature of the new workplace is access to the first phase of the precinct’s elevated Sky Park, featuring a striking sculptural spiral staircase leading up to the park from Collins Street. Creating additional community amenity, the wi-fi enabled Sky Park encourages workers to re-charge and work outside. The park’s biophilic design is an essential ingredient in enhancing health and wellbeing.
Lendlease’s new office is also centred around the concept of team neighbourhoods of 15 – 20 employees. Allocated desks are eliminated and replaced with centralised team tables to promote a team-based working culture and opportunities for immediate feedback, staff connectivity and collaboration.
Employees are free to choose how and where they work. Each neighbourhood has a range of spaces including ‘working walls’ for visual communication, enclosed meeting pods with access to virtual technology, breakaway areas for collaboration and services such as IT help desks on each floor to support high performance.
Lendlease’s commitment to employee health and wellbeing is further demonstrated through the creation of a wellness hub offering discretionary nutrition options, wellness and lifestyle seminars, health checks and group training activities including yoga, pilates and boot camp. Additional workplace highlights include a dedicated event space, a high-tech immersion room, a social hub with a barista and interconnecting stairs across the three floors, promoting free movement and social connectedness.
Further to this, One Melbourne Quarter is targeting a 6 Star Green Star rating from the Green Building Council of Australia, a 5.5-star NABERS Energy tenancy rating and a WELL New Interiors Certification. At the event last Friday, Lendlease Group Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Steve McCann said that moving into One Melbourne Quarter cements Lendlease’s bricks and mortar commitment to the precinct.
“Based on the workplace strategies implemented at our global headquarters in Barangaroo, our new Melbourne location demonstrates greener and healthier ways of working. This creates a workplace that lives and breathes a culture of collaboration and purposeful interactions, providing employees with a sense of belonging,” he commented.
Minister for Planning Richard Wynne also said that the opening of Melbourne’s first Sky Park at Melbourne Quarter has brought an exciting new green public space to the city for residents, visitors and thousands of Victorians who work nearby.
The Lendlease-managed Australian Prime Property Fund Commercial (APPF Commercial) purchased the 26,000 square metre One Melbourne Quarter on behalf of its investors in November 2016. The precinct’s next commercial tower, Two Melbourne Quarter, is presently under construction. The 50,000 square metre building is pre-committed by EnergyAustralia and is expected to reach completion in mid-2020.