Vaughan Tops Out Brighton Grammar’s New Science Centre

Seventy-year-old national builders Vaughan Constructions have topped-out a two-storey science and creativity centre at an exclusive boys’ school in Melbourne’s southern suburbs.

Brighton Grammar School’s Centre for Science, Creativity and Entrepreneurship is a collaboration with St Andrew’s Brighton Parish and the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne.

The multi-purpose centre has a gross floor area of 11,930sq m, on the school’s 4.2ha site at 90 Outer Crescent, Brighton, 11km south of Melbourne’s CBD.

The project, which has construction costs of about $70 million, includes an area for building and testing robotics and mechanical prototypes, three general-purpose laboratories for science, chemistry, physics and biology, a studio for drawing, painting, sculpture, print making and digital artwork, as well as staff offices, storage and technical spaces.

The design by Architectus includes basement parking for 72 vehicles.

Three tennis courts and a clubhouse will be built on the top level of the facility as part of the St Andrew’s Tennis Club.

“These innovative and dynamic learning spaces will provide a creative environment for students to thrive, whilst also strengthening the connection between BGS and St Andrew’s,’’ the school’s headmaster, Ross Featherston, said in a statement.

▲ The centre will include an area for building robotics and mechanical prototypes.

Vaughan Constructions was formed in 1955 and specialises in retail, commercial and industrial projects, with an annual turnover of about $400 million.

Brighton Grammar School is a private Anglican boys school that began in February, 1882, with eight students. Today it boasts about 1500.

Notable graduates include a Victorian premier, Sir Stanley Argyle [in office 1932-1935]; 2016 Australian Paralympian of the Year and wheelchair tennis player Dylan Alcott; brothers Andrew and Paul Bassat who founded the jobs portal Seek; TV presenter Charlie Pickering; and AFL high-flyer Warwick Capper.

Sir Lionel Hooke, a wireless operator with Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Antarctic Expedition, and Robin Batterham, chief scientist of Australia from 1999 to 2005, were also former student.

The science centre is expected to complete by January next year.