Stewart & Hemmant Redevelopment

The old Stewart & Hemmant Clothing Factory at 6 McLachlan Street was built in 1898 as industrial expansion was underway in Fortitude Valley following the extension of the train line from the city. At the time, Stewart & Hemmant was a household name for clothing and drapery in Brisbane, and employed around 250 workers.

Starting in 2020, the building has been transformed by Northshore Group Brisbane to bring the building back to life as a vibrant commercial, retail and office space.

Stewart & Hemmant DMA Engineers Brisbane
Stewart & Hemmant Brisbane DMA Engineers
Stewart & Hemmant Brisbane DMA Engineers

DMA Engineers was engaged to undertake the mechanical, hydraulic, fire safety and electrical design work on this iconic Brisbane project. Some features of our work are detailed below.

Fire Safety Engineering Design:

  • Design of the automated car storage facility, which was subject to the prescriptive fire safety recommendations of the Australasian Fire and Emergency Service Authorities Council (AFAC).
  • Utilising our safety team’s expertise in computational smoke modelling (FDS) we were able to rationalise the smoke exhaust requirements under the AFAC’s guideline for basement automated car storage facilities.
  • We produced a cost-effective fire safety strategy which included modifications to the mechanical ventilation system design to achieve the required smoke exhaust requirement for fire safety. This allowed the clients intent for building space utilisation to be satisfied without major design change or costly upgrade of the fire safety systems.

Hydraulic Design:

  • As the original building façade and footprint had to be retained, the space available for upgraded services with limited. We designed a common custom grease arrestor within a central courtyard that was hydrostatically piled under the ground false floor to prevent the arrestor lifting. This element of the design required a high level of detailed coordination during the design phase and with the contractors during construction.

We worked closely with the project manager and the broader design team to achieve an optimal design outcome while meeting the high standards of the Building Code.

The Stewart & Hemmant building was officially opened to the public in mid 2021 and now is fully tenanted with high quality cafes, restaurants, and office leases.

Client: Northshore Group Brisbane
Location: Fortitude Valley, Brisbane
Sector: Commercial, Retail
Services: Fire Safety Engineering, Hydraulics, Mechanical, Electrical
Year completed: 2021

Photos courtesy of Northshore Group Brisbane

For more information on this project, please contact us.