Consultant will help deliver pair of high-rise schools in Adelaide and New South Wales

Turner & Townsend has been appointed to two vertical school projects in Australia worth a combined £116m.

The consultant, through project management arm Turner & Townsend Thinc, will help deliver schools in Adelaide and New South Wales.

In Adelaide, the consultant will provide project management services on construction of six-storey Adelaide CBD High School (pictured), designed by local practice Cox Architecture. The school will cater for 8-12 year olds when it opens in 2019, and will specialise in the STEM subjects, science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Meanwhile, in New South Wales, the firm has been appointed to provide cost management and advisory services on the £58m 14-storey combined Arthur Phillip High School and Parramatta Public School, designed by Grimshaw and BVN.

T&T is working with Australia’s Department of Planning, Transport and Infrastructure (DPTI) on the projects.

On the Adelaide school T&T and the DPTI will engage two principal contractors during the concept and design phases and both will subsequently submit fixed price tenders for the project.

Nathan Hawkes, associate at Turner & Townsend Thinc, said: “The procurement model will provide the state with best value and certainty of cost and time.”

Restricted space to either build new schools or expand existing school buildings is one of the reasons behind the growing popularity of vertical schools. Building schools upwards allows them to retain prime city centre locations and cater for growing populations.