A BORDER building company that created a distinctive school facility while classes carried on has won a state award for its efforts.
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Premier Building and Construction claimed the childcare up to $5 million category at the Master Builders NSW Excellence in Construction Awards gala dinner in Sydney on Saturday.
Wodonga West Children’s Centre again proved a winning project after earning three awards including commercial builder of the year at the Southern Central regional awards in June.
The state judges said the building, which includes administration, kindergarten and learning areas, was a unique design that featured laminated timber and structural framing.
“There has been a great deal of expertise in co-ordinating building elements to ensure there is a logical set-out and pattern to reflect the intent of the design,” the judges said. “The quality of finish and standard of construction is exceptional.”
Premier Building and Construction managing director Anthony Baker said the team enjoyed producing Now Architecture’s innovative design.
“Not one wall in the building is square to 90 degrees,” he said. “It’s got a lot of ins and outs in different levels and ups and downs; four different floor levels, about five different roof levels and it really just creates a lot of interest.”
Mr Baker said this did add to the job’s complexity.
“There were a lot of late night discussions and meetings, running through different scale modelling of how things were going to go together,” he said.
The managing director praised site manager Ash Cooper and his team.
“We were right in the heart of the school and all of our access to our project was via walkways that the students and teachers were using during the day,” he said.
“We were organising our deliveries around school activities to make sure that we were getting deliveries when the students were in class and not moving around.”
School principal Jocelyn Owen said the school, architects and builders made a great team as construction progressed.
“Together we knew we were working on something really a bit special, it was very exciting,” she said.
Constructed over 11 months, the children’s centre opened in stages, with an official ceremony in March.
“We couldn’t be more pleased with where we come to work these days, it’s fantastic,” Mrs Owen said.
“It is very different, but that was the brief, it had to be a unique space and lots of natural timber.
“It’s really flexible and reflects the way that students learn and teachers teach this century.”