Building Code Consultancy | Fire Safety Engineering | Accessibility & Inclusive Design
Location
32-36 York Street, Sydney CBD
Client
Milligan Group
Principal Contractor
Ceerose
Architect
SJB
GFA
8,383 m²
Completed
August 2024
Engagement
Milligan Group, then novated to Ceerose at 50% Design Development, through to Practical Completion
York & Co adds a new layer to an old building rather than replacing it. At 32-36 York Street in the Sydney CBD, a nine-storey Victorian building completed in 1886 and a five-storey neighbour with a 1950s façade have been opened into one another to form a single floor plate, while 36 York Street rises a further six storeys to meet the building next door. Designed by SJB for Milligan Group and built by Ceerose, the 8,383 m² workplace keeps the original timber columns, beams and floors as part of its character.
Projects like this ask a lot of an existing building. Retaining heritage fabric while adding significant new floors meant building code, fire safety, and accessibility and inclusive design could not be considered in isolation. Each decision shaped the others.
DC Partnership provided Building Code Consultancy, Fire Safety Engineering and Accessibility & Inclusive Design, working alongside the project team for Milligan Group and then, following novation at 50% Design Development, for Ceerose through to Practical Completion. The aim throughout was to help the project keep the building it set out to keep.
A contemporary workplace within a structure built for a different era
The ambition was a single, contemporary workplace that kept the character of both buildings. The original timber structure would sit beneath significant new floors, and the design intent was to keep that timber visible. The existing layout was never planned around modern building services, and the qualities that give the building its character could not be removed without cutting into the fabric the project set out to protect.
The question for the project team was which constraints genuinely needed to change, and which could be resolved another way. Because that question ran across building code, fire safety, and accessibility and inclusive design at once, it needed one integrated answer.
Building code, fire engineering, and accessibility and inclusive design advice came from one DCP team, so each piece of advice was tested against the other two before it reached the design team. SJB, Milligan Group and later Ceerose worked with a single, coordinated strategy rather than reconciling separate opinions.
DCP started from what the project wanted to keep: the timber structure, the York Street façades and the character of the existing floor plates. A performance-based approach then showed how the building could meet contemporary expectations for safety and amenity with those elements in place.
The strategy was shaped around the building, rather than asking the building to be reshaped around the strategy.
The original timber is central to the building’s character. DCP developed a fire safety strategy that allowed key timber elements to remain exposed, so the structure stays part of the architecture rather than being concealed.
The result is visible in the finished building. On the 32-34 York Street side, the existing timber beams remain on show, with a fire-rated ceiling set between the structural grids.
A new building would typically receive smoke management systems designed from a blank page. York & Co’s existing layout was never planned for them, and a standard arrangement would have meant working around, or through, the heritage fabric.
DCP worked with the project team to establish what the building actually needed to keep people safe, and developed a fire safety strategy tailored to the existing layout. The result was fewer disruptive changes to the existing building and a simpler services design through design and construction.
The existing structure and floor plates meant a standard approach to accessibility and inclusive design was not always practical. DCP focused on whether the building works equitably and comfortably for the people who use it, and developed tailored solutions where the existing building called for them.
Accessibility and inclusive design could then be delivered without cutting into the fabric the project was designed to celebrate.
A tailored strategy for a heritage building depends on the confidence of the authorities. DCP led engagement with Council and Fire & Rescue NSW, raising matters early and setting out the reasoning behind each solution.
The client and project team knew where the regulatory questions sat and how they would be answered, which helped keep approvals moving with the program.
“DC Partnership is in a league of its own. They bring a high level of expertise that gives us and the city authorities confidence in the reports they produce.”
James Milligan, Owner & Director, Milligan Group
[Video placeholder] The York & Co project film sits here. Supply a YouTube or Vimeo link, or an MP4, and it drops straight in.
At York & Co, heritage and contemporary performance were never traded against each other. The strategy that keeps the timber exposed and the old buildings legible is the same strategy that lets the building work as a contemporary workplace.
Continuity mattered as much as any single solution. DCP stayed with the project through the novation from Milligan Group to Ceerose and on to Practical Completion in August 2024, so the reasoning behind each decision stayed with the project through construction.
Heritage, adaptive reuse and existing-building projects rarely stall on a single requirement. They become difficult when building code, fire safety, and accessibility and inclusive design are resolved separately. Coordinated advice from the outset helps developers, architects and builders see which constraints genuinely need to change, and how the character that made a building worth keeping can carry into its next life.
Ellie is the powerhouse behind DC Partnership’s financial, operational and people performance. With over a decade of experience in consultancies, startups and corporate environments, she’s a master at combining big-picture strategy with hands-on problem-solving. Since joining DC Partnership in 2021, Ellie has streamlined operations, expanded the company’s footprint and kept everything running smoother than ever. A champion of diversity, inclusion and female leadership, Ellie is all about creating a workplace where everyone feels valued—and where no challenge is too big to tackle.
