Edith Cowan’s multi-million campus in the sky

A new $695m vertical CBD campus will showcase Edith Cowan University and bring life to Perth’s central city.

Artists impression of new Edith Cowan University Perth CBD campus

Edith Cowan University will build a new $695m campus for 10,000 students in Perth’s central business district that vice-chancellor Steve Chapman says will “transform the face of the city”.

The high-rise campus, to be built over Perth’s new city bus interchange and next to a railway station, will include ECU’s well-known theatre school, the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. It will have performance spaces for drama and music, and a gallery.

Professor Chapman said the new campus would “be activating a night-time economy” in the CBD.

The new campus is expected to be opened in 2025, when ECU will close its Mount Lawley campus, 5km north of the city.

Aside from WAAPA, the new CBD campus will house the university’s programs in arts, design, communications, business, law, technology and cybersecurity.

Professor Chapman said it would offer “enormous opportunities for industry integration, including areas like cybersecurity, ensuring the development of a ­future-fit workforce”.

“This campus will deliver the innovative educational experience that is critical to the development of world-ready graduates and a digital-ready economy,” he said.

ECU’s school of education will move from Mount Lawley to the university’s main campus at Joondalup in Perth’s northern suburbs.

Edith Cowan University vice-chancellor Steve Chapman at the site of the new Perth CBD campus.

The federal and West Australian governments will make major contributions to the cost of the new campus.

Canberra will provide $245m as part of the Perth City Deal. The WA government will contribute $50m in land, whose ownership will be transferred to ECU.

The state government will retain ownership of the Mount Lawley campus but underwrite up to $100m to ECU to be provided after 2026.

The university will need to build a high-rise development to accommodate 10,000 students and 1200 staff on the relatively small site. The university has not yet said how many storeys high the building will be.

High-rise campuses often present problems for universities because of heavy pressure on lifts when students move between classes at the same time.

University of Technology Sydney no longer teaches in its high-rise tower near the city’s central railway station. The high-rise has been converted to administration.

Higher education architecture specialist Geoff Hanmer said there were no good examples around the world of successful high-rise campuses.

“That’s not to say that it can’t be done; there are potential solutions ” said Mr Hanmer, managing director of Arina and adjunct professor architecture at the University of Adelaide. “But beyond 12 storeys things get difficult.

“There are over one million university buildings around the world and only 60 of them are over 12 storeys.”

Murdoch University and Curtin University are also getting WA government support for boosting their Perth CBD presence.

Murdoch University also plans a vertical campus in the city that it says will include Perth’s first e-sports facility equipped to host major gaming competitions. It also will include an international college focused on science, engineering, technology and maths.