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With its listing late 1998 as a public company, the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) has taken on a new dimension as a performance driven company in its own right.
Recognising that its facilities must support these new business strategies and present its new corporate image, ASX made the decision to move from its present location in Bond Street to 20 Bridge Street, Sydney.
However, relocating without disruption is no mean feat, and some would say impossible.
While downtime and disruption are generally regarded as inevitable in any corporate move, they cannot be part of the equation for ASX when it moves in the middle of this year. The company's top priority is to meet the market demand that it has a continuous, completely uninterrupted operation, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
This meant that any move must be totally seamless.
Fortunately, ASX recognised that strategic facility planning is not only the key to the successful reorganisation or relocation of any business, but for a Stock Exchange it is of paramount importance.
Before making the decision to move, ASX undertook a 'stay or go' exercise and engaged Allen Jack + Cottier as facility planners to review its current accommodation situation and to assess whether its current premises could continue to meet its needs into the future.
The first step was to gain a thorough knowledge of the imperatives of the business, then to look at the requirements of each department and the synergies between and within them, and to understand the implications of special demands on accommodation.
To determine the amount of accommodation needed AJC had to work closely with ASX to ascertain growth predictions of staff and equipment.
The results of these studies became the basis for ASX's decision to move to new premises and AJC was charged with the responsibility of finding a facility that could respond to current business needs and continue to do so well into the next century, without interrupting the flow of business.
The nature of ASX's operation imposed exceptional demands. Not only did the new premises have to be in the right location, present an appropriate corporate image, and accommodate around 560 staff with flexibility for growth, but the building had to have a floor height with sufficient space to house the ASX Electronic Board, provide auditorium space with 300 seats for public lectures and incorporate a Data Centre. Added to that, the design of the facility had to meet environmental standards and assimilate the inordinate amount of technology needed by ASX. The building services also had to have the highest possible order of reliability with exceptional back-up systems.
The benchmarking proved invaluable.
Finally, AJC was able to recommend 20 Bridge Street to ASX as being the building which best fulfilled its criteria with minimal modification to the architectural design.
One of the reasons that 20 Bridge Street was the final selection was that it had floor heights that allowed the use of infinite access floors. Being a high user of technology, access floors would give ASX much more flexibility for reorganisation. The building also offered generous 1500 m2 floorplates, which facilitated work space layout design.
It was impossible to find a building with the floor height needed to accommodate the Electronic Board. The Board represents the public face and retail area of ASX and, when you realise that it is the size of a cricket ground scoreboard, you gain some idea of how difficult it could be to find a space to house it. It is an exceptional requirement.
However, this problem was solved by planning the first floor only half the width of the other floors, to achieve a double height space.
The ASX project also need to meet ESD criteria. High levels of natural daylight were incorporated into the design by specifying low E glass to the exterior in place of tinting to reduce the thermal load.
Once the choice had been made, the next phase of AJC's commission commenced - to design and plan the interior space to meet ASX's operational requirements.
Although efficiencies in space usage were achieved, the prime consideration was to meet ASX's philosophy. ASX takes an egalitarian rather than hierarchical approach to its workplace environment and stipulated that there should not be a significant distinction between executive areas and staff area. To achieve this used blocking and stacking models were used to design the floor layouts, concentrating meeting rooms, breakout areas and amenities around the core and maximising views by placing the main open working spaces around the perimeter of the floor.
ASX understands that property and all its associated costs account for a large part of its capital and operational expenditure.
Understanding ASX's top priority for continuous, completely uninterrupted operation, is one thing, translating it in physical terms and finding a facility that would dovetail with ASX's needs is perhaps the most challenging project anyone could possibly undertake. It is clear that the original preplanning and early attention to detail have stood AJC in good stead in following the project right through.
This is one project where 'good enough' is not enough - perfection is the only solution. ASX expects that the move to its new headquarters, Exchange Centre at 20 Bridge Street, Sydney, will take place in July/August 1999. It will occupy nine above ground floors of the thirteen floor building. In addition there are three levels below ground which house building services, the Auditorium and car parking space.
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