The state government held a "topping out" ceremony at its $100 million GovHub building on Monday morning, recognising the final beam going onto the building.
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According to Kane Nicholson's project manager Peter Spence, it's still on track to be completed at the beginning of 2021, and will be open by April.
"To achieve a topping out ceremony, we're getting close to the end, and we're really looking forward to handing over the keys in 2021," he said.
"The roof is going on, and once we get watertight - we're pretty much watertight now - we'll start doing the carpet finishes, the workstations, and the joinery coming into the building, it'll happen pretty quick.
"The curtain wall's going on, we're getting to lockup stage, and the connectivity between the building and streetscape, there'll be landscaping going in as well - it'll really come together towards the end of the year."
Ballarat architect Luke Jarvis, standing in what will become the fourth floor communal area, said while the views across the entire city are spectacular from the top, he was excited about the lower floors.
"On Mair Street, it's the public, formal, civic space, then there's the conservatory which links (Civic Hall)," he said.
"It'll go right down to the central plaza, there's quite a few meeting and gathering spaces for the community.
"For us, it was never about designing just an office building, it's more of a civic building, and given the site that was chosen, with Civic Hall and the library, it became a precinct-wide response, and that's the really interesting thing that's been about how it's been knitted and woven together with those other components."
One aspect is ensuring the public has access to the workers inside - as well as moving workers from Ballarat's VicRoads and State Revenue Office buildings, about 600 jobs across government departments like the Department of Jobs, Precincts and Regions, Department of Education and Training, and Department of Justice and Community Safety will be moved.
"With government buildings, it's those who serve the public on display to the public," Mr Jarvis said.
"We created all these windows and portals into the interactivity - it was bringing down the meeting spaces from the top floors to the ground floor so you can meet government workers outside the GovHub, or inside in a more formal environment."
Wendouree MP Juliana Addison said the jobs will "revitalise" the CBD.
"It's bringing 1,000 people into this building, that's a huge injection for the local economy - grabbing a coffee, dropping off dry-cleaning, or picking up a bottle of wine from Campana's over the road," she said.
Buninyong MP Michaela Settle added Ballarat artists were encouraged to get in touch to help with the finishing touches for the building.
"Development Victoria have announced they'll be looking for expressions of interests from local artists to design work that will be displayed in the public areas downstairs," she said.
"We're looking for artists to provide artwork that really celebrates our region, it'll be a space that all of Ballarat can be proud of."
FROM JANUARY: Ballarat's Mair Street renewal under way
A state government media release notes the GovHub project "is part of the Victorian government's $138 million transformation of Mair Street and the surrounding CBD area" - this includes road work, the Ballarat station precinct upgrade, including the new Quest Hotel and Goods Shed retail space, and the Craft Beer Centre of Excellence, understood to be under construction across the road.
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