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"headline": "Learning above a city’s pulse: The ECU City campus", "subhead": "August 18, 2026",
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"text": "Michael Lister discusses the challenges and constraints when engineering ECU’s City campus in Australian Design Review"
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Rising above the daily churn of buses and trains, the newly opened Edith Cowan University (ECU) City campus has landed in the middle of Perth’s central business district as the first comprehensive university campus the city has ever hosted within its CBD boundaries. The $853-million project, delivered under the landmark Perth City Deal in partnership between the Australian Government, the Western Australian Government, and ECU, is set to draw around 10,000 students and staff into the city centre, stitching education more tightly into the fabric of industry and culture that surrounds it.
Stantec served as lead engineer on the project, contributing civil, structural, mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, fire protection, specialist lighting, and vertical transport engineering services. Lyons Architects led the design in collaboration with Silver Thomas Hanley and London-based Haworth Tompkins, while Multiplex took on the role of main contractor. Between them, the team faced a challenge that reads more like a puzzle box than a construction brief, asking how to slot an 11-super-level academic building above a live transport interchange while keeping the infrastructure below fully operational.
Michael Lister, Stantec’s Buildings Business leader in Western Australia, was featured in Australian Design Review, where he discusses the challenges and constraints when engineering ECU’s City Campus.
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