UQ buildings honoured in architecture awards

Buildings at The University of Queensland have featured in five awards at the 2006 Queensland Architecture Awards.

The sensitive conversion of the former Mayne Hall into the James and Mary Emelia Mayne Centre at the University’s St Lucia campus earned the State’s top public architecture awards, given by the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (RAIA).

The FDG Stanley Award for Public Building Architecture went to Mayne Centre project architects,Wilson Architects. The Mayne Centre also won a Conservation Award, and an additional Architecture Award for Public Buildings.

The Centre, which opened in 2004 with a significant donation from The Atlantic Philanthropies, houses Australia’s first developing National Collection of Artists’ Self-Portraits and a changing program of exhibitions. It also houses the University Art Museum.

Wilson Architects also received an Architecture Award for Public Buildings for the University’s $24 million Sir James Foots Building. The building, which was the 2006 RAIA Brisbane Region Building of the Year, houses a Collaborative Learning Centre (CLC), a new type of teaching and learning space equipped with state-of-the art technologies, the Earth Systems Science Computational Centre (ESSCC) and the University’s Sustainable Minerals Institute (SMI).

Other awards featuring UQ buildings included the Interior Architecture Award to m3architecture for its fit-out of several levels of the UQ Chemistry Building.

The winning entries are now automatically short-listed for the National Architecture Awards, which will be presented in Brisbane on Thursday, October 26.

UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay, AC, congratulated the winning architects and said he was delighted with the outcome.

“The architecture of our buildings provides tangible evidence of the quality of our course offerings and research,” he said.

“We aim to provide the best possible environment for our staff, students and visitors.”

Professor Hay said the Mayne Centre had already received the RAIA Brisbane Regional Commendation and a Commendation in the Interior Design - Corporate category of the 2005 Queensland Design Awards.

The m3architecture-designed Micro/Health Laboratory at UQ’s Gatton Campus is one of the RAIA’s choice of 12 outstanding Australian buildings, to feature in the Australian Pavilion at the 10th Venice Architecture Biennale later this year.

Other UQ projects to receive building accolades earlier this year in the RAIA regional awards included Building 8 at the UQ Ipswich campus (Wilson Architects) and the Roche Laboratories at the Heron Island Research Station (Dimitriou Architects and Interiors).
High resolution mages of the Mayne Centre and other UQ buildings are available by contacting Chris Stacey at c.stacey@uq.edu.au.