Australia Square
Australia Square Tower is an office and retail skyscraper in the Sydney central business district, Australia. Its main address is 264 George Street, and the square is bounded on the northern side by Bond Street, eastern side by Pitt Street and southern side by Curtin Place.
Description and history
The building was first conceived in 1961, and its final design by Harry Seidler & Associates was in 1964 after collaboration with structural engineer Pier Luigi Nervi. Today, it remains a landmark building in Sydney and is regarded as iconic to Australian architecture. It has even been described as the most beautiful building in Australia, though it is not without criticism. The outstanding feature of the square is the Tower Building; from its completion in 1967 until 1976 it was the tallest building in Sydney.Originally owned by Lendlease, in 1981 it was sold to GPT. It is jointly owned by GPT and Dexus. During the mid-1990s the building was completely refurbished. Another $11 million refurbishment program, which included replacing all paving in public areas with Italian porphyry paving stone, new lighting and outdoor tables was conducted in 2003.
The Tower
Design
Australia Square was constructed shortly after height restrictions were lifted in the city of Sydney and at a time when small sites, including blocks created by laneways, were being consolidated into larger blocks to accommodate high-rise office towers.It was the world's tallest lightweight concrete building at the time it was built. The Tower Building is approximately tall and occupies only one quarter of the block. The circular plan of the main tower allowed Seidler to minimise what he called "the dark canyon effect", an approach further helped by setting the tower back from the street.
The original proposal included 58 floors; however, this was reduced to 50. On the 47th floor is a revolving restaurant called The Summit and the 48th floor houses an observation deck. The building contains one of Sydney's largest basement car parks with spaces for 400 vehicles. The major tenants of the Tower include Origin Energy and HWL Ebsworth. The major tenant was Lendlease until March 2004.
With a height of, Australia Square also holds the distinction of being Australia's first modern skyscraper as designated by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
Construction
The project was instigated by Dick Dusseldorp, the founder of Lendlease.The city block which is now Australia Square is approximately in area, and formerly held some 30 properties and buildings. Australia Square was constructed by Civil & Civic. Construction, starting with demolition of the old buildings, began in 1961. The finished tower is 50 storeys tall with most of these available for commercial tenants, a total of.
The tower is constructed of lightweight concrete, with 20 projecting vertical columns tapering to the summit and supporting a combination of interlocking rib-structured reinforcement and radial support beams. The tower is in diameter, with a central core of diameter. The core contains elevator shafts, emergency stairwells and service conduits. Each floor is donut shaped, with a clear span of to the perimeter windows and a total area of each. Construction time for each floor was five working days—a new standard in office tower construction.