A grand ballroom demands high impact aesthetics combined with maximum functionality, both of which have been supplied in spades at the recently refurbished RACV Royal Pines on Queensland's Gold Coast

Central to Stage 1 of the award-winning refurbishment is a 55 metre long and 5 metre high floor-to-ceiling glass wall anchored and framed by nearly a tonne of stainless steel wire rope and fittings. The wall ensures an impressive visual impact, as well as enabling a flood of natural light, a stunning view, and flexible exhibition options.

Designed by Joseph Pang Design Consultants and project managed by Schiavello Constructions, ASSDA Member Structural Dynamics (Australia) Pty Ltd (Strudyna - an entity under the Arcus Wire Group) was contracted to work with Queensland Glass to meet the demanding needs of the wall’s design.

Strudyna Architectural Manager Ross Munro said the installation was extremely complex, as well as being the team’s first retrofit glass façade project involving engineering, supply and installation.

The client requested a vertical cable truss, internal glass façade and mirror polished fittings to ensure a high-end finish to compliment the refurbishment.

Mr Munro said the retrofit installation meant there were many challenges associated with working with an existing engineered structure.

“The suspended concrete floor had been built to a specific load capability and included post-tension cables within the concrete floor that had to be accommodated. This affected the loads that could be applied to the cable truss to keep the structure rigid, while considering slab deflection with loads from occupancy,” he said.

The cable truss façade featured frameless hinged doors that were also emergency exit doors, so there were no horizontal cable elements to stabilise the  trusses.

Around 926kg of grade 316 stainless steel were used in the job, including fittings/castings and 8mm and 12mm Hamma X-Strand. Hamma X-Strand is stainless steel wire strand with a high quality shine finish manufactured by KOS in South Korea to Arcus Wire Group’s specifications, including annealing, pre-forming of wires and finished lay length, which significantly improves performance.

Electro bath polishing was used on the wire rope and floor and head tension plate brackets, while the spyders, rotules and compression posts were hand mirror polished.

In addition to the glass wall fixtures, other elements of stainless steel in the refurbished space included a staircase and handrail constructed by Arden Architectural Staircases and around 60 metres of 38mm grade 316 curved handrail fabricated and installed on an existing staircase by ASSDA Accredited Fabricator and Member Stainless Aesthetics.

Stainless Aesthetics Director Mike Mooney said his team also installed grade 316 capping on about 50 metres of 20mm glass balustrade, as well as further handrail and mirror-finish capping in the refurbishment of the resort’s health and fitness centre, which formed Stage 2 of the project.

With just 10 weeks to meet the venue’s fixed re-opening date of Stage 1, this challenging project required a high level of co-operation between trades and resulted in a classic marriage of form and function.

In a nod to the outstanding work carried out by all those involved, the RACV Royal Pines refurbishment was recently awarded the 2014 Queensland Master Builders Association’s Gold Coast Construction Award for Refurbishment/Renovation costing $5-$10 million.

This article is featured in Australian Stainless magazine issue 54, Spring 2014.