This was published 1 year ago
Sydney is getting taller, but is it getting better?
By Julie Power
Sydney is going up.
It is the 41st tallest city in the world, says Associate Professor Philip Oldfield, the head of school of built environment at the University of NSW. And the number of skyscrapers under construction is growing.
Sydney has 41 buildings taller than 150 metres, compared to Hong Kong with 551 and New York with 306, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat database.
Quay Quarter Tower – which kept the core of a 1970s building instead of razing and replacing it – won its second international prize this week, just weeks after it was named the world’s best skyscraper. As of last weekend, it is now 2022’s best building in the world according to a jury of architectural luminaries attending the World Festival of Architecture in Lisbon, Portugal.
Oldfield says Quay Quarters’ retrofit of an existing ’70s office block is unique. “There is nothing like the Quay Quarter Tower in the world,” he said.
Here are some of Sydney’s most notable tall buildings - ranked tallest to shortest:
At 271.3 metres, the tallest building in Sydney [not the tallest structure] is One Crown Barangaroo designed by WilkinsonEyre. It was the first Australian building to win the Emporis Skyscraper award, which cited its “extravagant design” with its shimmering glass cladding.
At 263 metres, the Salesforce Tower by Foster and Partners is now Sydney’s second tallest building. Completed this year, it is designed to resemble a tree with branches climbing up the exteriors.
At nearly 236 metres, Greenland Centre at 115 Bathurst Street also preserved an old building instead of demolishing it. The design by BVN and Woods Bagot added 45 levels to an existing 26-storey tower, repurposing instead of razing. Oldfield says there are only 200 buildings around the world that have done a vertical expansion, but most only add a storey or two. “There is nothing else at this scale,” he said. “Because high-rise buildings can cost billions and have a high profile, it allows the designs to be exemplars – to trial things that normally wouldn’t be viable [for a smaller development] using the best engineers and architects.”
At 228 metres high and completed in 1977, the MLC Centre in Martin Place by Harry Seidler was awarded the Sir John Sulman Medal by the Australian Institute of Architects. The giant mushroom or UFO looking building at its base, CTA Business Club, was included by Seidler, but not built until later.
With its tallest tower measuring 217 metres, the three International Towers Sydney at Barangaroo was designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and Lendlease Design.
At 216-metres-high, Quay Quarter at 50 Bridge Street – completed this year by architects 3XN with local architects BVN – has already won two international awards, including the best skyscraper and best building in the world. Described as a series of villages in boxes that spiral around the building’s core, it has been lauded for its upcycling. Instead of razing and rebuilding the 1970s AMP building, the new design retained the southern side of the building and its core.
At 170 metres and completed in 1967, Australia Square was anything but. Its circular shape surrounded by a large plaza was called Australia’s most beautiful building and was its tallest for many years. It won architect Harry Seidler multiple awards in Australia and overseas. Architecture critic Elizabeth Farrelly said, “Australia Square gave Sydney a sense of growing up, a sense of confidence. It was really our first glittering version of a skyscraper.”
At 155 metres high, the EY Centre at 200 George Street by Francis-Jones Morehen Thorp is often described as a “tower of wood”. Oldfield wrote in Architecture Australia that the most striking aspect of the building is its facade which “celebrates a natural material not often associated with office buildings – timber.” The result was “an aesthetic very different from the greys, whites and blues of the contemporary city around.”
The 133-metre highrise, 1 Bligh Street, was designed by Architectus with Ingenhoven Architects, from Germany. It won the 2012 Harry Seidler Award for Commercial Architecture, and awards for sustainability. An elliptical shape with wide steps and a large public sculpture, it also includes a 120-metre-high atrium that allows natural light.
At 114 metres, the original AMP building at Circular Quay was Australia’s tallest building when it was completed in 1962. Designed by Peddle, Thorp and Walker, it stood out among the two to three storey buildings and wool stores in the CBD, Oldfield said. The tower is now undergoing a $200 million restoration. Glinting from the real gold in its glass walls, the curved building was a popular tourist destination when it opened –1 million people flocked to its viewing decks within two years of opening.
If Premier Dominic Perrottet can appoint himself as the state’s defacto architect in chief, with strong views on which buildings should be razed or praised, it seems only fair that Herald readers can have their say too.