Rohrig delivers multi-stage upgrades for St Joseph’s College, Coomera

Rohrig is excited to announce the completion of a significant multi-building project at St Joseph’s College in Coomera, delivering enhanced learning facilities to support the Gold Coast educator’s rapidly growing student community.

Since opening its doors in 2019, St Joseph’s has offered holistic Prep to Year 12 education, quickly establishing a reputation for its cutting-edge specialist learning areas and modern sporting facilities spread across an inviting 16-hectare campus.

The architectural vision for the fourth stage of the college’s Master Plan was brought to life by Macksey Rush Architecture. Their designs encompassed a new main building, dedicated specialist learning areas, staff offices, an expanded carpark, and the enclosure of the existing amphitheatre to create a new performing arts space. A key aspect of the design for the new main building is its thoughtful integration with the campus aesthetic, achieved using a curved concrete feature wall and the use of exposed brick.

Rohrig was entrusted with the complex building works, which unfolded across seven carefully coordinated stages that included the all-new building, three extensions, four room renovations and a carpark extension. This phased approach was essential, as construction activity was dispersed throughout the busy campus. Despite logistical challenges, our site teams managed concurrent works across various areas, ensuring uninterrupted day-to-day operations at the college.

The new main building was the centrepiece of the project, featuring state-of-the-art food technology classrooms, a full-size commercial kitchen, cafe, adaptable general learning areas, and modern amenities. While the building was under construction, our team also extended the carpark, which included adjustments to the site’s bioretention area.

An extension was then added to a building featuring a large covered outdoor learning area (COLA) and sports court, integrating additional classrooms and a performance stage. This required a unique engineering solution, due to a three-metre roof overhang on the existing structure. Our solution involved placing a series of piles beneath the overhang, to ensure lasting structural integrity.

Careful and considered staging was crucial for this project, enabling ongoing school operations and preventing programme delays. Scheduling work during school holidays allowed access to key facilities and condensed the overall timeline. Given the project’s complexity and dispersed sites, additional Rohrig site managers and safety personnel were on-site to ensure smooth and safe execution across all work areas.

Daily construction activities were carefully planned around student drop-offs, pick-ups, lunch breaks, and other on-campus activities to minimise disruption at the college.

“These upgrades were a logistically complex undertaking, with work underway at multiple locations within a live school environment, so it was effectively seven projects in one,” said Rohrig QLD General Manager, Alexei Avsenev.

“Our solution was to schedule the more disruptive elements of the project during school holiday periods, while running multiple worksites concurrently. This condensed the programme and, most importantly, ensured that school activities were uninterrupted.”

Rohrig is a committed partner to the education sector, with a long history of delivering transformative projects at leading schools across Australia. We are proud to have partnered with St Joseph’s College to deliver facilities that will inspire the next generation of leaders.