Builders Rise To The Challenge Of Raising 200m Tower On Netball Court-size Block

It’s a piece of land the same size as a netball court but it’ll soon have a needle-thin, 57-storey building rising from it.

Welcome to 466 Collins Street, where work has begun on what will be the world’s fourth-thinnest residential tower (number one is in New York).

Approved by former planning minister Matthew Guy, the Collins Street tower would never be allowed today, thanks to tougher rules put in place by the Andrews government last year.

Designing it and convincing the skyscraper-friendly Mr Guy of the benefits of a 200-metre-high tower on a site with 11 metres of street frontage was the easy bit.

Building it, that’s the real challenge. And for that the architects and builders have come up with an innovative solution – they’re fabricating sections of the tower off site and then lifting them into place with a massive crane.

“It’s the hardest site we’ve ever built on,” says project manager Tim Price, who is overseeing construction of the 258 apartment.