Almost five years in the making, the much anticipated Frank Gehry-design business school for UTS is now complete. The buildings is a part of a billion dollar master plan for the university’s city campus which includes the Faculty of Engineering and IT design by DCM which opened in July 2014, and Thomas Street Science building by Durbach Block Jaggers and BVN, opening later this year.
“The Dr Chau Chak Wing Building and other recently completed projects… allow for the expansion of world-leading research with real-world impact.” said Professor Attila Brungs, Vice-Chancellor of UTS.
The fourteen storey building has two faces. The eastern facade is made up of 320,000 sandstone bricks referencing Sydney’s sandstone tradition. With five custom designed types, each brick has been individually laid by hand to form the distinctive undulating shape of the building. On the western facade, the angular glass shards are designed to respond to the contemporary context of Ultimo.
The $180 million building is sandwiched between Ultimo Road and Mary Ann street, a block south of the Powerhouse Museum and is set to be a key destination along the proposed redeveloped Goods Line.
Designed from the inside out, the building houses collaborative learning and work space, two oval classrooms, a 240-seat auditorium and a sculptural stainless steel staircase.
Students and staff of the UTS business school will begin moving into the new facility in late-November 2014. The building officially opens in February 2015 where Frank Gehry himself will be in attendance.
