Facts and figures
Council House 2 is a 10-storey office building housing approximately 540 City of Melbourne staff, with ground-floor retail spaces and underground parking. It's located at 240 Little Collins Street.
CH2 was officially opened in August 2006.
Gross floor area (GFA): 12,536m² comprising:
- 1995m² GFA basement areas
- 500m² net letable area (NLA) – ground floor retail
- 9373m² total NLA
- 1064m² GFA – typical floor
Bike spaces: 80
Showers for cyclists: 9
Car spaces: 20 plus one disabled space. The car park can be converted to office space or other uses.
CH2 costs
Total CH2 building cost = $51.045 million
Little Collins Street precinct development (including CH2 building costs), roadwork, upgrades to other buildings, professional fees, relocation costs, fit-out, art costs, footpaths, landscaping and other costs.
This includes:
- $29.9 million for the base building (2,334$/m2 or 58.5 per cent of cost).
- $11.3 million for sustainability features including a portion of the building cost of purge windows, light harvesting devices, precast ceilings, timber shutters, precast exhaust ducts, solar hot water collectors, photovoltaic cells, chilled water cooling system, shading screens, co-generation plant, air conditioning and beams and slabs. (884$/m² or 22.1 per cent of cost).
- $2.8 million on education and demonstration including a portion of the cost of shower towers, multi-use water treatment plant, PCM modules, roof landscaping, and chilled ceiling panels/beams. (218$/m² or 5.5 per cent of cost).
- $7.1 million on requirements specific to Council use including a portion of the cost of vertical landscape, balconies, access floors, lift finishes, communication cabling, stand-by generator, security system and building automation system. (553$/m² or 13.9 per cent of cost).
Fast facts
- By opening the purge windows for four hours a night in summer, CH2 reduces its cooling requirements by 20 per cent.
- CH2 office spaces have 100 per cent fresh air which is calculated to save Council over $2m a year in increased staff effectiveness and productivity.
- Lower light levels (150 lux) supported by task lights, saves 2/3 of normal energy use and has a beneficial effect on staff.
- CH2 replicates the leaf area of its original site through plantings on the north façade and roof terrace.
- All fit-out materials are recycled and/or non toxic which is expected to improve the health of staff.
- CH2 is projected to pay off its environmental features in approximately six years.
- CH2’s indoor plants are still alive and prospering – a typical indoor office plant gets replaced every two months.
- CH2 was Australia’s first '6 Star Green Star – Design' certified rated commercial office building by the Green Building Council of Australia.