Herston Quarter Redevelopment

Programming a precinct transformation over more than a decade.

Herston Quarter is the long-term transformation of a five-hectare site adjoining the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. Delivered by Australian Unity as a Priority Development Area, the precinct brings together health, commercial, residential, education and research uses with heritage buildings, childcare and new public spaces.

RCP has provided specialist programming services across multiple stages of the redevelopment for more than a decade. This continuity has carried programme knowledge, staging strategies and lessons learned from one package to the next across a complex, long-term delivery program.

Programming across the precinct.

RCP’s involvement has included:

• Stage 4, including 4B and 4C: Northern Car Park
  Programming and staging for the eight-level, 1,100+ space car park and associated precinct infrastructure, including construction sequencing alongside operational hospital facilities.
• Stages 5A, 5B and 6: Public Realm
  Programming for new laneways, landscaped courtyards and pedestrian connections, including the Spanish Steps and vertical links to Victoria Park. Works required careful coordination with health services, roads and existing precinct users.
• Stage 7: Lady Norman Building and Public Realm
  Programming for the adaptive reuse of the heritage-listed Lady Norman Building and surrounding public realm, balancing heritage requirements with adjoining live environments.
• Stage 8: Mixed-Use Building and Basement Car Park
• Stages 9 and 10: Mixed-Use Towers
• Stage 11: Lady Ramsay Childcare Centre

Managing the programme across multiple stages.

Led by RCP National Programming Manager Mario Youssef, our role has included baseline programme development and review, staging and methodology advice, contractor programme assessment, progress monitoring, risk identification, recovery planning and delay advice.

RCP has also aligned programme pathways with government gateway requirements and provided ongoing programme assurance for Australian Unity as individual packages progressed through planning and delivery.

A key challenge has been managing the relationship between each stage and the precinct as a whole. Construction has taken place beside a major operating hospital, with multiple contractors, heritage buildings, existing roads and services, public access and community interfaces all influencing the sequence of works.

RCP’s long-term involvement has provided continuity across these interfaces, with programme knowledge and staging logic carried forward as Herston Quarter has evolved from one stage to the next.