Case Study: Delivering the complete picture for a sports facility renovation planning
Client: Property Management Group
Property: A golf club clubhouse in Heatherton Victoria
Property type: Premium golf club and hospitality facility ground floor and basement
Services delivered:
- Existing conditions survey,
- Floor plans,
- Reflected ceiling plans,
- External elevations,
- VLX mobile mapping,
- 3D building scanning
Deliverable formats: PDF and CAD DWG,
Project value: $20,000
Client relationship: Ongoing and dating from 2007
Background
This golf club occupies a 120-hectare site in Heatherton, Victoria and is one of Melbourne’s most distinctive private golf and hospitality venues. The property came to prominence following its publicly reported sale by Crown Resorts to the Fox family, a transaction reported in the range of $90 million to $100 million.
With the property under new ownership the property group required a thorough understanding of the clubhouse’s existing built form before renovation planning could begin. The clubhouse is a substantial, architecturally detailed facility encompassing formal arrival spaces, dining and bar areas, a gallery and lounge, kitchen, retail, locker rooms, service and storage areas, a porte cochere, landscaped verandahs, basement car parking and a prominent clock tower which means there is a level of complexity that demands accurate documentation before any architect can meaningfully progress a design brief.
The property group required accurate existing conditions documentation to support early renovation planning for the clubhouse. The intended works required a clear understanding of the clubhouse’s current spatial arrangement, floor levels, ceiling heights, ceiling cavity conditions and key building services, ensuring the project team could assess renovation options with confidence before moving forward.
The challenge
When the property group’s team reviewed the architectural and structural drawings supplied by the vendor, it became clear the documents could not be relied upon. The drawings did not accurately represent the building as it stood which is a common but critical problem when planning renovation works on older or previously modified buildings where the record drawings have not been kept current.
Proceeding to design based on inaccurate plans carries real risk: architects make decisions, contractors price work, and budgets are set all on the basis of information that does not reflect the actual building. Discrepancies only surface when work commences, by which time changes are expensive and delays are unavoidable.
So the solution was straightforward: commission an independent existing conditions survey from a qualified team, replace the unreliable vendor drawings with accurate, survey-grade documentation, and give the architects a dependable base from which to design.
Realserve was the natural choice. The general manager for construction at the property group engaged Realserve directly as he has a continuing client relationship with us that extends back to at least 2007.
The approach
Realserve approached the project with a methodology matched to the complexity and scale of the building.
Survey control using a Total Station
To underpin the accuracy of all spatial data captured across the site, Realserve first established survey control using a Total Station. This provided a reliable coordinate framework across the ground floor and basement — ensuring all subsequent capture data was referenced to a consistent and accurate datum throughout the building.
Building capture using VLX mobile mapping
With survey control established, Realserve captured the building using VLX mobile mapping technology. The VLX system allows a large, occupied, architecturally complex building to be documented efficiently without requiring prolonged shutdown of the facility — the operator walks through the space and the system continuously captures the surrounding environment in high detail.
For a building of this scale and complexity (multiple interconnected hospitality spaces, service areas, basement levels, external elevations and detailed ceiling conditions) mobile mapping utilising SLAM technology was the right tool. It combined the speed needed to capture a large site with the accuracy required to produce architectural base drawings the design team could rely on.
The survey was completed while the clubhouse remained operational. Realserve’s team is experienced in working within live venues and occupied environments, where discretion, coordination and efficient site movement are essential. By using mobile mapping technology supported by survey control, the team was able to capture the required data with minimal disruption to the day-to-day operation of the club, allowing staff, members and visitors to continue using the venue while the survey works progressed.
All captured data was processed by Realserve’s team and independently reviewed through the firm’s quality assurance process before any deliverables were released to the client.
What we delivered
Realserve delivered a coordinated existing conditions survey package in PDF and CAD DWG formats,, covering the ground floor and basement in full.
- Basement floor plan
A complete floor plan of the basement level documenting car parking layout, storage areas, offices, services, amenities, floor finishes, finished floor levels, columns, drainage, power and data point locations — providing the design team with a full picture of the lower level as it exists, including infrastructure that would affect any future works.
- Basement reflected ceiling plan
A ceiling plan of the basement showing ceiling and slab heights, bulkheads, beams, lighting positions, emergency signage, mechanical exhaust registers, cable trays, pipework, services, and column locations thus giving architects the information needed to design works in the basement without relying on assumptions.
- Ground floor plan
A detailed floor plan of the clubhouse’s ground level covering all internal layouts like dining areas, kitchen, bar, gallery and lounge, retail and lounge spaces, locker rooms, amenities, verandahs, porte cochere, joinery, counters, floor level changes, and all external access points. This document replaced the inaccurate vendor drawings as the definitive reference for the ground floor’s existing built form.
- Ground floor reflected ceiling plan
A ceiling plan of the ground floor capturing ceiling heights throughout, skylights, sloped and curved ceiling profiles, awnings, bulkheads, downlights, emergency lights, speakers, cameras, air registers, access panels, and all ceiling-mounted services, all details that are essential for a hospitality renovation where ceiling treatments, lighting design and services integration are central to the outcome.
- External elevations — all four faces
East, north, west and south elevations of the clubhouse documenting the full facade including rooflines, ridge levels, gutter levels, material notes, ground level changes across the site, relative levels, and the building’s prominent clock tower. For a renovation that will affect the building’s external appearance or roofline, these elevations provide the accurate starting point for facade design and planning permit applications.
Samples of the plans from this project
The outcome
Realserve gave the property group and their architects accurate, survey-grade existing conditions documentation across the full ground floor and basement of clubhouse, replacing the vendor’s unreliable drawings with a complete and dependable base from which renovation design could proceed.
The practical effect was to eliminate a significant source of design risk before it could affect the project. Architects working from inaccurate base drawings make decisions that don’t reflect the building and those decisions surface as problems during construction, when they are most expensive to resolve. By establishing what the building actually is before design commenced, Realserve gave the project team the clarity they needed to move forward with confidence.
The building itself added a layer of complexity that not every survey team is equipped to handle. This clubhouse is a premium, architecturally distinctive facility with detailed ceiling conditions, curved and sloped profiles, a formal arrival sequence with porte cochere and landscaped surrounds, hospitality spaces with high levels of joinery and service integration, and a prominent clock tower that required precise external elevation documentation. Capturing this level of detail accurately, and delivering it in a format the design team could immediately use, is the standard Realserve works to, on every project of this type.
Services used in this project
- Existing conditions survey — ground floor and basement
- 3D Building Scanning with VLX mobile mapping technology — efficient, accurate capture across a large, complex occupied building
- Total Station survey control — precise coordinate framework underpinning all captured data
- Floor plans — ground floor and basement, PDF and CAD DWG
- Reflected ceiling plans — ground floor and basement
- External elevations — all four faces including clock tower
- Independent quality assurance review before release
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