Construction of UTS's state-of-the art business school and high-tech learning hub is complete – forming the latest milestone in its billion-dollar City Campus Master Plan.
Building work has finished on site and fit out is being finalised ahead of staff moving into the Frank Gehry-designed Dr Chau Chak Wing building over coming months.
A large contingent of media were today given a sneak peak of some of the interiors of the much anticipated building and other new campus highlights.
The official launch is scheduled for February, when the building's world-renowned architect will join other VIPs for the opening ceremony. Students will arrive in Semester 1, 2015.
The building bears the name of Australian-Chinese businessman and philanthropist Dr Chau Chak Wing, who made a generous donation of $20 million to the project.
Media received a sneak peak of Australia's only Frank Gehry-designed building, photo by Peter Morris
Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Resources, Patrick Woods, who has led the campus redevelopment, said the Dr Chau Chak Wing Building itself required "out of the box thinking".
"This building is basically bespoke," he said. "There's very little about this building that has been done before."
This latest milestone follows the opening earlier this year of the ground-breaking new Faculty of Engineering and IT building on Broadway, the completion of the first stage of a massive subterranean robotic library retrieval facility, new public and student spaces and a science and health education precinct that features a research "super lab".
Marking the tools down milestone, UTS Vice-Chancellor Professor Attila Brungs said much creative planning, hard work and the generous patience of staff and students had transformed a bold campus vision into a tangible and inspiring reality.
Completion of the Gehry-designed building was cause for particular celebration, having thrown up unprecedented design, technology and construction challenges that demanded highly innovative solutions.
"The Dr Chau Chak Wing Building and other recently completed projects are a physical manifestation of the innovative and creative thinking that underpins UTS's commitment to creating revolutionary spaces to support our new models of learning," Professor Brungs said. "They also allow for the expansion of our world-leading research with real-world impact."
Professor Shirley Alexander with ABC News reporter Adrian Raschella, photo by Robert Button
The Dr Chau Chak Wing Building was designed from the inside out, starting with the collaborative learning and workspaces. Only then was its distinctive "skin"– a sandstone-coloured, undulating brick façade and striking glass panels – added to the design.
"Our story is really not about the building, our story is about Australia's future," Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Education and Students, Professor Shirley Alexander, told the media event marking the milestone.
"Australia can no longer compete on the cost of labour; we have to compete on the quality of labour and that's what these buildings are all about."
The Dr Chau Chak Wing Building and the other elements of the redeveloped campus facilitate a new way of doing research, a new way for students to learn, and a new way to engage with industry, Prof Alexander said. They help UTS equip its graduates with the skills they need not just for the jobs of the future but also to create their own jobs and businesses.
"Our new approaches are made possible by these new buildings."
- A large contingent of media were today given a sneak peak of UTS's state-of-the art business school and high-tech learning hub
- Building work has finished on site and fit out is being finalised ahead of staff moving into the Frank Gehry-designed Dr Chau Chak Wing building over coming months