Golden Age Group has revealed the first look of its state-of-the-art boutique commercial office building on Little Collins Street, a vertical community that intertwines lifestyle and corporate, including subterranean end-of-trip facilities more akin to an international first-class lounge.

Reaching 27-levels high, the project is a collaboration between Cox Architecture, Hecker Guthrie and Jack Merlo.

Nestled between Melbourne’s premium commercial hub and Melbourne’s culinary destination, the corner site is bordered by Little Collins Street and Coromandel Place and will feature a sun-drenched lobby with double-height voids, complete with a luxurious wine bar, a subterranean basement restaurant and a dedicated and well-connected business centre facilitating bookable spaces for meetings, conferences and events alike.

Level 2 to Level 26 comprise of column-free floorplates offering sun-drenched office spaces with maximised floor-to-ceiling heights of 2.7m to create an environment that promotes productivity, with an additional wrap-around garden terrace on Level 8.

Meanwhile, a stunning communal garden rooftop terrace offers a beautiful outdoor space for casual meetings and lunches and at night, transforms into a space to entertain co-workers and clients alike, complete with a kitchenette.

Perhaps the most impressive feature is the subterranean end-of-trip facilities with Hecker Guthrie drawing inspiration from first-class lounges around the globe to create a high-end experience that provides a relaxing ritual to punctuate each end of the working day.

Visitors will have access to private change rooms with showers and towel service, individual storage lockers and a waiting lounge complete with magazines, newspaper and refreshments.

Providing glimpses out to the basement shell, the state-of-the-art carpark is more akin to an avant-garde cave and features dramatic lighting to create mood and drama, complete with electric vehicle charging stations and bike parking with repair station.

According to Paul Hecker from Hecker Guthrie, the key was to use unexpected finishes and fixtures that add warmth to what would normally be a cold and commercial type of project.

“The quick and easy assumption is that the office is no longer a ‘must-have’ in a post-COVID world but we believe many people over this time have also learnt the very high value of having a designated workspace away from their home life that can offer balance and focus time.

“We want the lobby to feel like a true hospitality space that has relevance to both day and night, a space to gather and meet. Likewise, the rooftop terrace goes far beyond a normal amenity for a commercial building, it offers a space that can be utilised for functions and parties, akin to a hotel bar.”

Golden Age Group Founder and Managing Director Jeff Xu said 130 Little Collins Street reimagines the typical commercial office building and redefines the space between work and play.
“The typical commercial building has been turned on its head; we’re foreseeing a preference towards more boutique floorplans as a result of businesses scaling down their requirements for an office, coupled with something that greater emphasises lifestyle and wellbeing - that feeling you get when you’re in an airport lounge or a boutique hotel, it’s blurring the space between work and play.”

130 Little Collins Street will be a building of high environmentally sustainable design with certification targets of 5-Star NABERS design potential, 5-Star Green Star Design and As-Built, in addition to WELL Certification as a means of improving the health and wellbeing of its occupants.

Cox Architecture Director Eliza Suffren says that even before the seismic changes affecting commercial building design in the last year had become apparent, they were tasked to both redefine and reimagine the ‘commercial’ offering.

“Golden Age’s vision was to create a building that is well-suited to the known and emerging demands of our ‘new normal’ and that is exactly what 130 Little Collins is - it is stepping away from the ‘glass box’ typology to deliver something unique,” she says.

Sarah Buckley

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