American Express Corporate Headquarters comprises four basement car parking levels, a ground floor transfer deck and eleven storeys of office space above ground floor. The building sits directly adjacent to the Western Distributor.

American Express is a part of the wider King Street Wharf precinct, with total project value in excess of $1.2 billion. Robert Bird Group was engaged by the client for structural and civil engineering for the life of the entire development.

Key technical innovations

Robert Bird Group added significant value to the project, including the following innovations:

• Existing basement structure was strengthened using structural steel to allow for late deletion of internal tower columns, thus providing large column-free office spaces.
• Efficient long-span post-tensioned floor plate structures minimized floor heights
• Precast load-bearing façade solutions allowed fast and safe construction directly adjacent to the Western Distributor.
• Detailed co-ordination and notching of floor beams minimised building height whilst allowing for efficient services reticulation.