Casino, Hotel and Apartments in Sydney (Star City Casino building)

UNSW, Sydney – Australia

Casino, Hotel and Apartments in Sydney (Star City Casino building)

Building use

Office building

Country/Region

Australia

Overview

The Star City Casino building in Sydney was the largest building project in Sydney since the construction of the Sydney Opera House. The building comprised a number of innovative composite construction and high strength steel applications.

Basic information (construction date, number of stories, gross floor area, adopted design code, engineer(s), Contractor(s), etc.)

Construction date: 1995
Number of stories: 20
Gross floor area: 135,000m2
Adopted design code: AS1250/AS2327.1 (Standards Australia, 1990 and 1980)
Engineer(s): Ove Arup and Partners
Contractor(s): Leighton Contractors

Issue and/or innovation

Use of high strength steel, large span composite beams/trusses.

Specific solution/technical details

The Star City Casino building in Sydney was completed in 1995. Upon completion it was the largest building project in Sydney since the construction of the Sydney Opera House. The building was designed by structural engineers Ove Arup and Partners and built by Leighton Contractors. The project entailed a massive podium structure of casino, theatres, shopping and other facilities with a total floor area in a single plate exceeding seven football fields. The podium was then capped with two 20 storey towers, with one tower being for a hotel and the other being for a residential apartment facility. The building comprised a number of innovative composite construction and high strength steel applications. Firstly, in the main gaming areas of the casino, large span composite beams of approximately 16 metres were designed and constructed. In the basement levels of the building, high strength steel fabricated sections (690 MPa (N/mm2)) being used for encased sections were used to minimise the cross-sections of the columns. Another very innovative structural steel application concerned the roofs of the Lyric and Showroom theatres. Due to constraints with site access for cranage, the trusses for the roofs had to be constructed with minimal weight. This required the design of 36 metre spanning trusses made composite with a topping slab and utilising high strength structural steel for the sections. Post-tensioning of the trusses through the bottom chords was also used to help alleviate long-term serviceability concerns.