Building blocks
October 2005
Monash University is looking to the future with major infrastructure developments across its campuses.
Report: Allison Harding
Several building projects are under way across Monash campuses in Australia and overseas, ensuring the university maintains its status as one of the country's leading educational institutions well into the future.
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| New horizon: the Australian Synchrotron seen from the air. |
The growth in undergraduate and postgraduate studies and international student numbers at the university's Caulfield campus is being accommodated with a new 10-storey, $100 million building. The building is nearing completion and its 762-space, multi-deck car park is already open.
The first three levels of the building will feature lecture theatres, computer laboratories, a postgraduate lounge and shops. The Faculty of Business and Economics will occupy two levels and the Faculty of Information Technology a further three. The top level will accommodate a conference centre and corporate facility, and there is also space for commercial tenants.
The project director at Monash Property Management, Mr Neville Bentley, says stage two of the Caulfield campus redevelopment is being planned.
This $160 million project involves moving underground the current Coles supermarket -- adjacent to Monash in a building owned by the university -- and turning the existing ground floor into a 'village' of student and staff residences, shops and offices.
"Ultimately, the Caulfield campus will be a place where people want to be -- to learn, to engage with creative ideas, to play, and even to live," Mr Bentley said.
At Clayton, the next stage of the Monash Science Technology Research and Innovation Precinct is currently under discussion, and plans should be finalised by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, a $5 million refurbishment of the nearby senior chemistry building, involving extensive work to laboratories, should be finalised by early next year.
At Peninsula, a major landscaping project is beautifying parts of the campus, while a major refurbishment is under way on the building that will house the health sciences, physiotherapy and occupational therapy courses when they start next year.
The other major project under discussion is a regional precinct incorporating a leisure and aquatic centre to be based at Peninsula campus. The academic director of the Peninsula campus, Professor Phillip Steele, says the Frankston Regional Health and Wellbeing Centre will require state and local government funding.
"There's a real need for such a centre to benefit the wider community and also our staff and students," Professor Steele says. "We hope to have agreements in place with local government and Chisholm Institute of TAFE by the end of the year."
Professor Steele, who is also academic director of the Berwick campus, says the university's vision is to make it an exciting place in which to learn, teach, live, work and play. "To support the university's academic plan, Monash has developed an urban plan for a high-quality university village, aimed at further integrating the campus and the community," he says.
The proposal to implement the urban plan is before the Victorian Minister for Education and Training.
"If the minister approves the plan, Monash is committed to comprehensive community consultation, in partnership with the City of Casey , and with the cooperation of Chisholm TAFE and local secondary schools," Professor Steele says.
When the Victorian College of Pharmacy joined Monash University 12 years ago, 400 students were enrolled to study the Bachelor of Pharmacy at the college's Parkville campus.
Today, more than 1000 students are studying a greater range of undergraduate degrees at the campus, there are more than 100 postgraduate students, many more researchers, and almost twice as many general and academic staff.
Consequently, the college has outgrown its existing buildings, and plans for a substantial redevelopment of the Parkville campus are under way.
Faculty manager Ms Marian Costelloe says the first stage of the campus upgrade will involve the Manning building and the sale of a block of vacant land adjacent to the campus.
Construction of a six-storey building on the vacant site and renovation of the Manning building are expected to be completed by the end of 2007. Monash will lease the refurbished Manning building and half of the new building for a period of 25 years, with the option to extend the lease for a further 15 years. The other half of the new building will be leased by organisations external to Monash but with interests in drug discovery and development.
The building for the Australian Synchrotron, on Monash land adjacent to the Clayton campus, has been officially opened by the Victorian Minister for Innovation. A synchrotron uses high-energy electrons to create bright, pinpoint beams of light that allow scientists to examine the structure of matter at the atomic scale. The synchrotron at Monash will be the largest in the Southern Hemisphere when it is completed in 2007.
The opening of the building presented a unique opportunity for the public to walk through the storage ring tunnels before installation of the storage ring components. Around 12,000 people from Melbourne, regional Victoria and interstate took advantage of the open day.
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