Hindley Street Heritage Redevelopment
Above: The finished result — restored façade and modern ground floor activation.
FORA were engaged by Adella Holdings to refurbish their heritage-listed property at 12-14 Hindley St. The building was formerly the site of David Jones Department Store prior to its relocation to Rundle Mall. The century old character building consist of basement, ground, levels 1 and 2, with multiple interconnecting stairwells. Aside from the two ground floor tenancies the building is vacant with the upper floors dated fitouts feeling like a time warp back to the 60s.
Photos of Existing Conditions
The original Hindley Street façade before restoration works began.
Dated upper-floor fitout, untouched for decades.
FORA worked alongside RAD Studio and Lucid Consulting to deliver the project scope, including:
- New DDA compliant lift spanning 4 floors
- Interconnecting steel staircase wrapping around lift core
- Upgrade to building services- Full demolition of existing installations
- New external façade glazing to ground floor
- Repair of external façade in line with heritage guidelines
- Façade canopy replacement
- External plaster repairs and repaint
Key Construction Challenges
Upgrading Service Capacity
Electrical and water service upgrades required detailed maximum demand analysis to avoid transformer replacement.
Alongside the services engineers we assisted SAPN and SA Water in their assessment of incoming electrical and water supplies. A detailed maximum demand analysis was done accommodating all the new services to the building and we were able to increase the electrical supply without upgrading the transformer, avoiding significant cost and time implications.
Installing the New Lift
Lift shaft excavation and steelwork installation.
FORA were active in the selection of the new lift, ensuring it would fit within the existing building structural elements. The new lift would require a lift pit excavated into the basement floor slab, and have a core filled blockwork shaft which also supported the steel staircase which wrapped around the shaft across 4 levels. Given the age and lack of existing drawings the process involved peeling back elements of the building and onsite measurements to ensure the new lift and staircase would fit.
Due to limited access, machinery such as the excavator had to be craned into the basement.
Latent Conditions
Any building of this age comes with its hidden issues and this was no exception. Asbestos was encountered in some of the existing fitouts as well as undocumented steel which was concealed within. Water-damaged structural elements were encountered requiring removal and remediation. Every issue was comprehensively reviewed and strategy implemented including cost and time implications.
One of the unique issues was the discovery of an abandoned but still active brick well under the basement slab which clashed with the location of the lift pit. Given there is a water table high point running under the building this meant the well had to be retained to displace the incoming water. This was done by installing a pump to the well floor, then backfilling the well with structural sand/cement mix. This process was managed efficiently without major disruption to the master program.
Basement excavation and remedial works revealing the historic brick well.
Façade Repairs
The external scope included replacement of ground floor windows, canopies, signage, new entry doorways and patching and paint of the external façade. As the building is heritage listed all the scope and new works required approval from Heritage SA. This process involved onsite physical inspections, all of which managed by and coordinated by FORA team.
As we removed the existing windows and canopy we had to hoard off the ground floor and part of the pavements, which required permits and methodology approval from Adelaide City Council. The building was completely scaffolded to allow the patching and painting. Finally the external lighting was upgraded to show off the beauty of the iconic building once the scaffold was removed and all works complete.
FORA Engagement
FORA was engaged in a construction management role. This was agreed as the unknowns in the building meant a conventional lump sum delivery would potentially be commercially unviable for. All costs were presented in an open book manner with the client also actively engaging the worn preferred contractors for certain specialist works.
The project was delivered successfully and the new works enabled a new tenancy to occupy the ground floor as well presenting an attractive blank canvas for future tenants for the other floors.
