Lismore's newest office building has won the Master Builder's Association award for the best regional commercial building in the $3 to $5 million category.  The building is located at the corner of Molesworth and Zadoc Streets opposite the Law Courts.

The building has previously won a merit award in the public domain section of the 2007 Northern Rivers Urban Design Awards.

The latest award was won by Hutchinson Builders for building quality, construction time and delivering resourceful construction outcomes to difficult site circumstances.  Hutchinson's NSW Manager, Paul Hart said "To be judged the best in a particular category, against industry peers is always a rewarding outcome."

The building was developed by and is owned by the Ballina based Westlawn Property Trust.  It is leased to the NSW Department of Community Services and accommodates about 100 office workers.

The Trust's managing director, Mr Peter Fahey said "We are particularly pleased with receiving both awards.  The river-side site provided enormous challenges in terms of its topography, difficult underground conditions and poor street infrastructure."

Mr Fahey said "The design of the building is a contemporary solution to a site which resides in the St Andrews Heritage Conservation Area close to the Wilson's River.  The building was also constructed to the exacting standards of the State Government."

Mr Fahey said "Whilst the building represents less than 2% of the Trust's property portfolio it compliments the Trust's ownership of Lismore's largest office building at the corner of Woodlark and Molesworth Streets.  The total value of the Trust's investment in Lismore is over $22 million."

In giving the design award, the judges panel said "The challenges of a steep and flood-prone site are used as opportunities to create a landscaped and terraced corner as well as a human scale and well-detailed secondary street frontage.  This is a substantial and neatly detailed architecture reflecting the civic status of its neighbouring courthouse and police station."

The Trust's portfolio manager, Mr Peter Burge said "What is also of significance is that the building is Lismore's first 'green' building.  It has been designed to achieve a 4.5 star rating in the Australian Building Green Rating (ABGR) system."

In order to achieve this rating many measures have been taken to reduce the building's consumption of electricity.  This includes insulating the underside of the office slab to retain heat in the winter months and to reduce heat in the summer months.  The windows are double-glazed, tinted and screened with louvres to reduce heat in the summer.  The lighting is low energy and timers have been used to minimise the hours of power consumption.

Mr Burge said "The days of taking electricity for granted are gone.  The building even harvests rainwater to irrigate the on-site landscaping."

Despite winning two awards, the building has also successfully withstood two of mother nature's early challenges.  Shortly after construction was completed in September last year the hail storm damaged the roof.  A couple of months later in January the carpark levels were inundated by flood waters.

"The building will be re-roofed in the near future which is more of an inconvenience than anything else.  The flood provided an early opportunity to test the flood evacuation and clean up procedures.  The building has been designed to accommodate flood with the office level being a half a metre above the 100 year flood level." said Mr Burge.