Brisbane City Council approve DA for 30-storey tower on Grosvenor Hotel

A slimline 30-storey office tower that will sit on top of a 138-year-old hotel in the Brisbane CBD has received development approval.

An artist's impression of 320 George St in the Brisbane CBD.

A SLENDER 30-storey office tower that will sit on top of a 138-year-old hotel in the Brisbane CBD has received development approval.

Brisbane City Council has approved the tower which will be just 9.5m wide, and will sprout from the historic Grosvenor Hotel at 320 George St.

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The Grosvenor Hotel

Hames Sharley principal Jason Preston — whose company designed the tower — said he believed it would be the narrowest building of its height in Brisbane.

On the corner of George and Ann streets, the tower will contain 9100sq m of office space, with three levels containing restaurants, 17 carparks and a number of apartments.

The elevator core will be located on the site’s western boundary, and the tower will be topped with a rooftop bar.

An artist's impression of 320 George St in the Brisbane CBD.

“There is also an expansive 400sq m city room and garden on level 14 for tenants to enjoy, which is becoming a normal integrated part of key CBD developments since the inception of Buildings that Breathe guide,” Mr Preston said.

The facade of the Grosvenor Hotel will be retained at the base of the tower.

Mr Preston said most of the interior heritage features were gutted in the 1980s when the Grosvenor Hotel was rebuilt internally.

“There is existing original brick work, which has been covered in plaster during one of the past renovations,” Mr Preston said.

“We are proposing to peel back the layers of render to expose the original brick work internally in the lobby.”

An artist's impression inside 320 George St in the Brisbane CBD.

The site is owned by NSW-based Lionmar Holdings who bought it in 2011 for $4.4 million.

They started the development application process in 2013 with the plans going through a series of modifications.

Once known colloquially as The Grosvenor School of Law due to the large number of barristers and solicitors who spent time the hotel — built in 1881 — was occupied by a strip club and topless bar until it was closed down in January.

Mr Preston said the building’s narrowness necessitated a number of architectural solutions.

“Given the building’s four lifts are designed as a ‘side core’ to the west boundary wall, a building of this kind will twist and sway differently to a traditional tower, which is usually anchored by a number of central lifts, stair cores and a larger floor plate,” he said.

“Working closely in collaboration with Currie and Brown and ADG, we proposed a hybrid exoskeleton bracing system for the building, both as a structural necessity and to visually anchor the building, while retaining a typical continuous glazed curtain wall as the external skin.”