Abian rises 41 levels and 148 metres above the City Botanic Gardens, and almost all of it is curved glass. There are no ledges to stand on, no window that opens onto the shell, and no way to reach the elevation except from the roof.
We started here in 2018, polishing the glass on the flared lower levels, and have cleaned the building ever since. It has its own certified davit arms at roof level, so every drop is rigged off those, and the whole tower comes down in one pass rather than being broken into sections and revisited months apart.
At a glance
Location
Brisbane CBD, 140 Alice Street
Services
Window cleaning, glass polishing, height safety inspection
Access
Rope access, rigged off the roof davit arms
Frequency
Clean every six months, height safety certified each year
Photos
On site
The clean
Cleaning 148 metres of curved glass
Abian is a shell glass tower. The facade curves in plan and in section, the skirt flares out over the Alice Street entry, and above level 28 there are two level apartments with balcony glass nobody can reach from inside. Every one of those surfaces has to be cleaned off a rope.
What the clean covers
Exterior shell glass over the full 41 levels, plus the exterior faces of the balcony balustrades
Balcony glass on the level 28 two level apartments, which has no access from inside the building
The underside of the skirt glass, worked back underneath rather than dropped past
The two level lobby glass at ground level on Alice Street
A re-clean of any panel marked by drips before the crew comes off that elevation
How a clean runs
We work top first. The crown comes down to level 10 before anyone touches the lower levels or the skirt, which is the opposite of how most towers get done. On Abian it is the only order that works, because anything washed off the upper shell runs down over whatever has already been cleaned below it.
Pure deionised water does most of the work, with applicator and squeegee where the glass needs it. The building gets cleaned every six months, which keeps hard water staining, calcification and concrete dust etching off the coating rather than letting it set in.
How this one started
Our first job on Abian was not a clean. As construction finished in 2018, Sunland brought us in to polish the glass on the flared lower section of the tower.
Through October and November 2018 we worked the panels across levels 3 to 8, rigged off the same davit arms we still use today. The body corporate put us on the ongoing window cleaning after that, and we have been on the building ever since.
Height safety
The systems every drop hangs off
There are 47 davit arms around the roof of Abian for facade access, plus the fall arrest systems that get people onto the roof safely in the first place. All of it has to be in certification before a rope goes over the edge. We have inspected it every year since 2018.
What the inspection covers
All 47 davit arms and their sockets, inspected to AS/NZS 1891.4
The fall arrest and roof access systems that get technicians onto the roof and back off it
A certificate and an asset register listing what passed, what failed and where each asset sits
Anything that fails tagged out on the spot so nobody can use it, and rectification quoted separately
Done while we are already here
The inspection runs while the crew is on site for the clean. That is the cheapest time to have someone competent on that roof, because the access is already arranged and the gear is already up there, so nobody is paying for a second mobilisation to a 41 level tower.
It also means the people certifying the system are the people hanging off it. Nobody signs off a davit arm they would not use themselves the next morning.
How we get to it
Rigged off the roof
Keys signed out from management, gear carried to the roof, ropes rigged off the building own certified davit arms. Four drops run at once along the roof edge, and the crew works around the tower rather than up and down a single face.
Working a curved shell
Curved glass throws a rope away from the face, so a technician cannot simply hang and work. Each drop is set so the rope lands where the glass actually is, and on the skirt the crew works back under the overhang instead of past it.
The tower sits directly above a public footpath and the Botanic Gardens, so everything carried over the edge is tethered and the ground below is cordoned before the first drop goes down.
How we leave it
Every tool tethered, and nothing loose carried on the rope
Footpath cordons and signage up while drops are live, and packed away at the end of the day
Drip affected panels re-cleaned before the crew comes off that elevation
Keys and roof access passes back to management before anyone leaves
Roof doors locked and the building manager spoken to before the crew vacates
Photos uploaded the same day, so the record exists whether or not anyone asks for it
Challenges
What makes this one awkward
None of it is difficult on its own. It is awkward because the building is 148 metres of curved glass standing on a public corner in the CBD, and there is no second way to reach any of it.
The shell curves, so drops have to be planned around where the rope will actually sit rather than where the davit arm happens to be. The skirt hangs out over the entry, which means working back underneath it. The level 28 balconies have no internal access at all.
And because the whole tower drains onto itself, the sequence matters as much as the technique. Clean it in the wrong order and you clean half of it twice.
Outcome
What the building gets
Glass that reads as glass. On a mirrored shell tower every streak, drip and water mark shows from the street, so the standard is the whole elevation clean at once rather than panel by panel.
Six monthly cycles keep the hard water staining and concrete dust etching off the coating instead of letting it build to the point where it needs chemical treatment or buffing. Every clean also includes a free photo inspection of the facade, so anything starting to go wrong on the sealant, the balustrade fixings or the glass itself gets picked up while the crew is already on the rope.
