A look inside the redevelopment of Townsville’s historic Seaview Hotel
As the quote from Tony Robbins goes – “All growth starts at the end of your comfort zone.” That phrase certainly holds true for the work we completed as part of the $8 million redevelopment of the historic Seaview Hotel earlier this year.
Located on The Strand, this beautiful waterfront landmark was first established in 1889, then later rebuilt in 1929 during World War II and used as the Officer’s Quarters, following a devastating fire which destroyed the original structure.
We were honoured to be selected to help revive and expand this landmark and took on the job with a great sense of responsibility to past, present and future community of Townsville.
As we prepare to celebrate this project once again as a submission at the 2022 Master Builder Queensland Awards taking place in August 2022, we sat down with Project Manager, Luke Jordison to ask him all about overcoming challenges and the lessons learnt while completing one of our most complex projects to date.
Did you encounter any struggles while working on the historical building? How did you overcome them?
Yes, countless! As the original building had been constructed close to 100 years ago, there were many unique challenges that would have been difficult to pre-empt. Flexible design solutions, problem solving and teamwork are always important to any construction, but given the age and significance of this particular project, it becomes critical.
What was the biggest lesson learnt from working on this project?
Streetbuild is regarded as a trusted partner for live environment construction projects. As I’ve learnt over the years, it’s paramount to understand how each individual industry works to ensure that it can efficiently and effectively function even while so much is changing. My greatest lessons came from the exposure to such a large-scale hospitality business and how best to limit the impact of construction on their day to day operations.
What was the most rewarding part of working on this project?
Watching each stage finally come together is always the most rewarding part of every job. Somehow it makes me appreciate all the obstacles we had to face to get to the end as it made the team stronger and myself a better project manager for it.
What was a key highlight of the project?
Balancing the old with the new was a challenge that also became a key highlight of my time on this project. While most areas were completely renewed, the front of the hotel was restored to its original glory which involved a repaint, repairing existing awnings, and carving new window hoods to match the existing façade.
The materials used are also a key highlight. In the gaming room, we used imported venetian glass bricks and it was the first project to use a Knotwood cladding system as an external wall cladding which are each key architectural features of the building.
Want to see more work from Streetbuild? View our projects here.
