The building, which will host the Department of Primary Industries, plus staff from several other department areas, will receive its lifts by May.

Construction remains ahead of schedule, with the full DPIE to move into the building in October.

Staff are currently struggling for space at the Kite Street building, with a makeshift area set up for staff assessing $2 million a week in drought applications, divided from the rest of the office by the filing cabinets containing their workloads.

Planning and procurement executive director Caroline Myers said she looked forward to working in a light-filled building and with open-plan desks and meeting areas, it would completely change the way staff worked.

"It's just an agile space and it will open up opportunities to collaborate," she said.

DPI director-general Scott Hansen said even he would not have an office and hoped it would help to focus resources more effectively.

"We're going to be encouraging people to park up alongside whoever's already there - that's a challenging mindset change for some of our researchers who have spent a lot of time in offices but they're the first to admit they love getting out and telling people what they do," he said.

Project manager for ADCO Ben Galmes said the building had used 15,000 cubic metres of concrete so far, 8000 tonnes of reinforced steel, 3500 square metres of glass on the facade.

"If you laid out the mechanical duct, there would be about two kilometres," he said.