Wallace Wurth Biomedical Research Centre, Australia

The Wallace Wurth Building is the most recognisable building at the Kensington Campus in the premises of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia. The building is home to the teaching and research staff of the Faculty of Medicine at the UNSW.

It has been named after the first Chancellor of UNSW Wallace Wurth, for his contribution towards the establishment of the Faculty of Medicine at the UNSW.

The five-storey Wallace Wurth building is situated in the wing 'M' of the UNSW Campus. It is located in the corner of the campus and runs in the north and south directions along Botany Street and the High Street.

The biomedical research building is being expanded to create additional space for the academicians and students of the Faculty for Medicine to focus on research practices. Biomedical research at UNSW is focused and more practiced in the fields of neuroscience, molecular biology and pharmacy, epidemics, cardiovascular and cancer.

The new building will also house the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research (NCHECR) which will be shifted from the Darlinghurst Campus.

The project was approved by the New South Wales Government in January 2011 and is currently underway construction. The project work commenced in August 2011 and is scheduled to be completed in March 2014.

Expansion of the Wallace Wurth Building at UNSW

The expansion project includes construction of a new wing and an additional level to the existing structure. The facilities at the building will remain operational even while the construction work is on.

The existing building is 12,800m2 in size. The expansion project will witness the addition of 10,000m2 to make way for a single building size of more than 22,800m2.

The facility's design will meet Green Star Education v1 star certification requirements. The existing facilities will be retained wherever possible and the ones that need to be changed will be refurbished.

The redeveloped building will have six levels with a roof plant excluding the lower ground floor and the floor above it.

The completed facility will accommodate 1,400 research staff and 700 students of the Faculty of Medicine's School and the Kirby Institute.

The redeveloped Wallace Wurth Building will complement the new Lowy Cancer Research Centre and the Biological Sciences Building that was completed recently at the UNSW Campus. It will facilitate sharing of knowledge and resources within the UNSW campus.

Facilities of Sydney's teaching and research building

The facility houses wet and dry research areas for undergraduate and postgraduate medical teaching and research staff.

The ground floor and level one will be dedicated to the undergraduate medical teaching staff. It will comprise of the lecture and seminar rooms with audiovisual facilities, small group spaces, clinical teaching rooms and wet research area.

The lower ground floor has already been refurbished. It now has a new morgue with walk-in stainless steel cold rooms equipped with -20°C freezers. Special laboratory services and back-up generators will be stationed at this level.

Levels two to six will comprise of wet and dry research areas and also house a laboratory, write-up space and research equipments for use by the postgraduate students and academicians.

Other facilities at the renovated building will include special purpose areas such as animal facilities and administration and infrastructure support.

Construction of and contractors involved in the University of New South Wales' Wallace Wurth Building

The building's footprint will be expanded to the north and south of the 'M' wing. An atrium running through the full length and height of the building will connect all the floors in the east and west side of the wing.

The goods store and retaining walls will demolished and the boundary fence, hedge, kerbs and trade waste pit will be removed. The bus bay on the Botany Street will be retained. The existing entrance of the building will be relocated to the south of Botany Street.

As of December 2011, the medical administration and gas store building located near the project site was demolished. The 'M' wing was vacated and hazardous materials removed from the wing. The facade and the internal partitions were removed from the wing to give way for expansion.

The new building has been designed by LahzNimmo Architects and Wilson Architects. Lend Lease was awarded the A$122.5m ($122.1m) project management contract for the expansion in June 2011.

Taylor Thomson Whitting and AECOM are the structural and mechanical engineers respectively. The morgue in the lower ground floor was refurbished by the Buildplan Group.

Other contractors signed for the project are Aurecon as electrical engineer, Design Coalition as lighting specialist, LHO Group as hydraulic engineer, Meinhardt as fire engineer, The ENTS as arborist and Spackman Mossop Micheals performing as landscape architect.