Adelaide Festival Tower is a $1 billion mixed-use landmark that rises 115 metres above the Adelaide CBD, positioned within the Festival Plaza precinct adjacent to Adelaide Central Railway Station and offering 360-degree views that reach from the city out to the coast and across to the hills. The tower delivers 40,000 square metres of 6-Star Green Star premium office accommodation, with low-level restaurant, café and retail tenancies on the ground floors and 1,500 car park spaces beneath.
A development of this scale and sustainability rating requires exacting documentation to meet strict Green Star certification criteria and support long-term energy performance. To achieve this, Dewick & Associates was engaged to author the Mechanical and Communications O&M Manuals for the project.
Our focus was on producing Green Star-compliant documentation that provides building operators with a complete, accurate reference for the systems installed across one of Adelaide’s most significant commercial developments.
By Louise Gardner
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O.P Industries, is an experienced Australian mechanical services contractor delivering HVAC and mechanical infrastructure solutions across large-scale commercial and mixed-use developments. For this project, O.P Industries was responsible for the complete mechanical services installation within a 115-metre, 6-Star Green Star-certified tower comprising approximately 40,000 square metres of premium office accommodation, activated ground-floor mixed-use spaces and extensive parking infrastructure. Given the scale of the development and the high-performance sustainability objectives, the contractor required a documentation partner with proven experience in Green Star-compliant O&M Manuals and the technical capability to produce detailed, professionally structured documentation aligned with the project’s operational and certification requirements.
Delivering Green Star-compliant documentation for a large mixed-use development presents a significant coordination and quality assurance challenge. Green Star O&M Manual credit criteria require documentation to meet strict standards for accuracy, completeness and usability, ensuring building operators have clear guidance for the ongoing operation and maintenance of every installed system. For a complex development incorporating commercial, residential and shared infrastructure, this requires detailed technical information across multiple services disciplines, extensive equipment schedules, and clearly structured operating and maintenance procedures aligned with the final installed scope.
Dewick & Associates supplied the Mechanical and Communications O&M Manuals for the project, managing the consolidation and verification of technical content from numerous subcontractors, consultants and suppliers. With central plant systems, distributed HVAC infrastructure and integrated communications networks forming part of the development, careful coordination was required to ensure all documentation accurately reflected the as-built installation prior to practical completion. The result was a comprehensive set of Green Star-compliant manuals designed to support long-term building performance, operational efficiency and ongoing facilities management requirements.
Dewick & Associates’ Client Coordinator and the Technical Writing team worked directly with the contractor to capture the installed mechanical and communications systems across the tower, using drawings and technical data as the foundation for each section of the manuals.
The Mechanical O&M Manual was structured to cover the central plant, the HVAC systems across the office floors, and the supporting mechanical services, with full system descriptions, operating instructions, preventative maintenance requirements and fault-finding guidance written to the level of detail the Green Star credit criteria require. The Communications O&M Manual was produced to the same standard, covering the structured cabling, communications and data infrastructure.
Outsourcing the documentation to Dewick & Associates freed the contractor’s team from the time and complexity of preparing Green Star-compliant manuals in-house, while giving them confidence that the documentation would satisfy the certification requirement.
The project delivered a fully Green Star-compliant suite of Mechanical and Communications O&M Manuals that supported the successful certification of one of Adelaide’s landmark commercial developments. Produced in accordance with Green Star credit requirements, the manuals provide a comprehensive operational reference for the tower’s major building services systems, including detailed asset data, operating procedures, preventative maintenance requirements and technical schedules aligned with the as-built installation.
The completed documentation gives facilities and asset management teams the information required to efficiently operate, maintain and optimise the building’s high-performance systems throughout the asset lifecycle. For O.P Industries, the manuals formed a critical component of project close-out, supporting compliance obligations and contributing to the delivery of a 6-Star Green Star-rated development positioned at the premium end of the South Australian commercial office market.
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.
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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.
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