Catholic Church Unveils Brisbane Office Block Plan

Plans for an eight-storey commercial building neighbouring one of Brisbane’s oldest churches have been lodged with the Brisbane City Council.

The Catholic Church’s Archdiocese of Brisbane engaged architects BVN to design the mixed-use building, which incorporates a function space, communal rooftop and public area, on the site of the state-heritage-listed St Patrick’s Church at 58 Morgan St, Fortitude Valley.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Brisbane said the code-assessable development application was lodged on behalf of the parish of St Stephen's Cathedral.

“The driving force behind this application is the need to ensure the parish can financially support its ageing St Patrick’s church, which has been part of the community for more than 140 years,” he said.

“The parish also maintains the historic St Stephen’s Cathedral, which requires ongoing maintenance.

“Both churches have long-standing roles in their communities and we want them to be places of gathering for another 150-plus years.”

The spokesman said the proposed development would retain the current setting of St Patrick’s Church and that it reaffirmed the cultural significance of the gothic church in the area “without impacting on the fabric of the existing church building”.

The proposed building would be built on the vacant southeastern portion of the 10,690sq m site with a 2441sq m footprint, covering about 23 per cent of the parcel of land.

It has been designed to safeguard the views of the 19th century gothic church from James and McLachlan streets.

The development will include two basement levels to accommodate 132 car parking spaces and 88 bike spaces on the ground floor, along with a lobby for the office tower, and function space on the ground and first floors.

Levels two to seven will provide commercial office space.

The rooftop will include a green roof to reduce heat absorption, as well as an outdoor terrace space. The building will provide a total of 13,270sq m of gross floor area.