150 Grenfell Street is a premium commercial office redevelopment in the Adelaide CBD, designed to deliver a high-performance workplace with a strong focus on sustainability, occupant wellbeing, and operational efficiency. The project transformed an existing asset into a contemporary commercial building targeting high Green Star performance, strong NABERS outcomes, and long-term operational optimisation.
Delivered by Built Environs , the development incorporates advanced mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and fire services systems engineered to support low-energy operation and enhanced occupant comfort. Achieving the project’s performance objectives required more than design and commissioning alone; it required structured post-occupancy verification and ongoing performance tuning.
To support the project’s Green Star requirements, Dewick & Associates was engaged to develop Building Tuning Plans for the mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and fire services systems. These plans established a clear, coordinated framework for monitoring, reviewing and optimising operational performance during the critical post-occupancy phase.
By Louise Gardner
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Built Environs is one of Australia’s leading construction companies, delivering complex commercial, health, education, defence, civic and infrastructure projects nationwide. The company is recognised for its commitment to quality delivery, technical excellence, and sustainability-led construction outcomes.
For 150 Grenfell Street, Built Environs delivered a premium-grade commercial office environment targeting high sustainability performance, energy efficiency, and occupant wellbeing. As part of the project’s Green Star strategy, structured Building Tuning documentation was required to support ongoing performance optimisation following practical completion.
Dewick & Associates was engaged to prepare discipline-specific Building Tuning Plans across mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and fire services systems, providing a practical operational framework aligned with Green Star compliance requirements and long-term asset performance objectives.
Modern high-performance commercial buildings rely on increasingly sophisticated building services systems to achieve energy efficiency, occupant comfort and sustainability targets. While these systems are typically commissioned prior to practical completion, actual building performance can only be fully assessed once the building becomes occupied and operational conditions begin to reflect normal use.
For 150 Grenfell Street, the project team needed to demonstrate compliance with Green Star requirements by establishing a formal tuning process capable of monitoring, reviewing and optimising building performance during the operational phase. This required a coordinated approach across multiple building services disciplines, ensuring that mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and fire systems continued to operate as intended while responding to real-world occupancy patterns and operational demands.
The Building Tuning Plans needed to clearly define performance objectives, monitoring requirements, stakeholder responsibilities, tuning activities and reporting processes, providing the building owner and facilities management team with a practical roadmap for ongoing building optimisation.
Dewick & Associates developed a suite of Building Tuning Plans aligned with Green Star requirements and industry best practice for post-occupancy optimisation.
Discipline-specific strategies were prepared for mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and fire services systems, establishing structured approaches to performance monitoring, fault identification, and corrective action implementation.
The plans defined:
A key emphasis was placed on ensuring the documentation was not purely compliance-based, but functionally usable by facilities management teams. The structure enables repeatable tuning processes during the initial occupancy period and beyond.
The completed Building Tuning Plans provided the project team with a comprehensive framework for achieving and demonstrating ongoing building performance optimisation in support of the project’s Green Star objectives.
By establishing a clear post-occupancy tuning strategy across all major building services disciplines, the plans assist facilities managers in identifying performance issues early, improving occupant comfort, reducing unnecessary energy consumption and maintaining efficient building operation throughout the building lifecycle.
For the project stakeholders, the documentation delivered a robust and compliant pathway for satisfying Green Star building tuning requirements while supporting the long-term sustainability, operational performance and asset value of one of Adelaide’s premier commercial office developments.
The content in this case study has been informed by project documentation and client communication provided to Dewick & Associates during and following the completion of the project. Where external sources have contributed to our understanding of relevant standards or industry practice, these are listed below.
Note: Some content in this case study draws on a combination of sources rather than direct quotation. Where this is the case, contributing sources are acknowledged above rather than cited inline.
Building Tuning Plan
Detailing a structured strategy for monitoring, adjusting, and optimising building systems after handover, to ensure they operate efficiently, meet performance targets, and respond effectively to actual occupancy and usage conditions, including:
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