super-basement and the natural topography of the original excavation . Once the rock outcrop occurred , the slabs were levelled over them to form the upper two parking decks and retail levels . The Ground Floor retail slabs were stepped with down stand beams to accommodate the sloping ground levels and the upper office slabs edged with post tensioning to remove the necessity of either up or down stand beams .
Careful detailing of the façades to accommodate brick modulated slab levels and stair treads , resulted in construction and expansion joints throughout the structure to accommodate all the separate types of movement between materials , platforms and columns .
All the office buildings were completed with a lift and service core to the roof and a roof slab that can accommodate an extra level of light weight office structure .
In the retail areas , the tenants have all used their own designers for the shop interiors . Only the Galleria finishes and the associated public toilets have been finished with a high end finish of porcelain tiles with very simple banding and very simple illuminated and tiled exposed columns .
Infrastructure Services Stormwater management of the new precinct supplied a challenge , as the previous scheme had used the full quota of the run off water into the Sandspruit on the eastern boundary . Intervention into storm water retention and improvements for the James and Ethel Grey
Interiors As the office blocks are to be fitted out by the tenants , the office plates have been kept as skeleton structures with only the interiors of the common basement to roof lift lobbies and their associated fire escapes , toilet facilities and services plant rooms being completed . dhk Architects , with dhk Thinkspace , have kept a simple palette of tile finishes to detail these public zones . Porcelain tiles have been used throughout with the careful intervention of a series of modes of patterning to provide unique sets of lobbies ( basement , street and office ) with a separate identity to each of the six buildings .
Melrose Piazza 257