CQ3 – CITY QUAYS 3 BELFAST
Location | Belfast |
Sector | Commercial Office Development |
Main Client | Belfast Harbour |
Main Contractor | Farrans Construction |
Architect & Engineer | RPP Architects & Doran Consulting |
Steelwork Contractor | Walter Watson |
Westok Solution | 235T Westok Cellular Beams |
Kloeckner Westok has played a significant role in helping to sculpt the built environment of the city of Belfast, and this continues into 2021 with a significant new commercial office development project.
The City Quays development is a £275M regeneration scheme at Belfast Harbour, involving some 20 acres of prime waterfront land overlooking the River Lagan in the city centre. The impressive development includes a host of new commercial space, including in excess of 750,000 square feet of Grade A office space, along with hotel, retail, dining and car-parking facilities.
Remarkably, Kloeckner Westok is associated with nearly 40-storeys of clear-span steel-framed construction at the development, spread across 3 commercial office schemes and the multi-storey car parking facility.
CQ3 IFC courtesy of Walter Watson Ltd
The latest development on site is the ultra-impressive and record-breaking 3 City Quays scheme. Topping out at 16 storeys, the composite steelwork structure provides 23,000m2 of new office space to create a signature building at the heart of the development.
When complete, CQ3 will become Ulster’s tallest Commercial Office development, and the 2nd tallest in Ireland.
Reinforced concrete was initially considered by Doran Consulting to frame out the structure, however structural steelwork utilising clear-span Westok cellular beams was chosen to reduce the weight of the building, thus reducing the size of the foundations required, and to take advantage of the speedy construction programme benefits associated with structural steelwork. The clear-span Westoks radiate from the central core, carrying a 160mm metal deck slab.
With sustainability very much in mind, the building has been designed to achieve BREEAM “Excellent” standard. Future-proofing design is critical to ensure building longevity, and the continuous string of cells across the full width of the Westok beam provides the M&E designers with considerable service routing options, both now and into the future.
The economically designed frame comprises some 240t of Westok cellular beams, fabricated and erected by Walter Watson Ltd for Main Contractor Farrans Construction.
Westok is incredibly proud of our projects in and around the Belfast. Beyond the City Quays development, Westok has helped to design key-Belfast structures, such as the Kingspan Stadium – home to Ulster Rugby, the extension to the Waterfront Conference & Exhibition Centre, as well as the world-famous Titanic Belfast tourist attraction.
Images courtesy of New Steel Construction & Walter Watson Ltd