Saved from the wrecking ball, AMP building reopens as a glittering star on Circular Quay

There was a frogman in its seawater tank. And the glass facade of the skyscraper was sprinkled with gold dust.

Little wonder that the 1962 opening of Australia’s then-tallest building, the 117-metre-high AMP “Sydney Cove” building at Sydney’s Circular Quay, would excite the nation and attract a million tourists, including Queen Elizabeth, to its observation deck within a year.

Opening the modernist H-shaped office block at 33 Alfred Street, then-prime minister Sir Robert Menzies said it was a “towering symbol” that “quickened the imagination”.

The city’s first real skyscraper, the 26-storey office block by the late architect Graham Thorp, took advantage of a change in legislation to break the city’s 150-foot (46-metre) height limit imposed in 1912. That started “the skyscraper phenomenon” of higher buildings and increased density. Until then, Sydney had been a short and old-fashioned city, and the public feared it would go the way of New York.

The AMP Building in Circular Quay was officially reopened on Friday.Credit: Sam Mooy

On Friday morning, Premier Chris Minns and Lord Mayor Clover Moore reopened the 63-year-old building at 33 Alfred Street.

Minns said: “The great thing about this project is that they didn’t call in the wrecking balls. They called in some of our best architects and engineers and created an absolutely beautiful building.”

The reopening follows a three-year restoration and modernisation by architects Johnson Pilton Walker (JPW), heritage consultants Urbis, and construction company Built for co-owners Dexus Wholesale Property Fund and Mirvac Wholesale Office Fund. With AMP now housed in the Quay Quarter building, the newly modernised office block is expected to become home to some of Australia’s top law firms, including Allens which is expected to take over the floor that was once a public observation deck.

As Sydney’s first real skyscraper, Minns said 33 Alfred had helped define the city. A symbol of post-war growth and architectural ambition, it married the best of the old with the best of the new. “What this project shows is we can still do great things in the city.”

Dexus general manager of development Nicholas Wilkinson next to some of the original window panels that once blocked the view from the officesCredit: Sam Mooy

He was taken with the curve of the roof seen from the observation deck: “When it is stretched against the blue sky on a wonderful Friday in Sydney, it looks like the wing of a Pan Am airplane. They don’t make buildings like that any more.”

Moore said the AMP building had to go up in height so it could look over the Cahill Expressway, which she described as a continuing blight that blocked views and separated the city from the harbour.

By retaining the AMP instead of demolishing it, Moore said the redevelopment had saved tonnes of carbon and reduced emissions. It was also the culmination of the city’s award-winning Quay Quarter redevelopment, which resulted in new laneways with restaurants and the restoration and reuse of heritage buildings.

Dexus said the building had been transformed into a state-of-the-art office tower spanning about 32,000 square metres. Its reuse of the existing structure minimised landfill waste, extended the lifecycle of the building and was developed to achieve a 5.5-star NABERS Energy rating for the base building, and a 6-Star Green Star.

Its heritage listing by the state two years ago said the facade was covered with gold dust. Dexus’ general manager of development Nicholas Wilkinson said he didn’t think it was real. “I wish it was,” he said.

The original AMP building in 1961 as it was under construction.Credit: Fairfax

Thorp wrote in the Herald in 1962 that the building’s shape would not have been seen elsewhere in the world. A curtain wall spandrel with gold-fused backing was used to give a reflective surface with a constantly changing pattern in sunlight.

During the restoration, parts of the original facade – the famous curtain walls – were retained. The rest was updated with a material that Wilkinson said sparkled like the original to honour its heritage but used contemporary techniques.

The windows were also changed because the views across one of the world’s most famous harbours were “located somewhere between the hips and the chin of the average person standing up. With some smart design, there is now a good line of sight to the harbour.”

“That’s where the magic happens,” he said.

Nobody has any record of the original frogmen who cleaned the seawater air-conditioning system that created a steady indoor climate in the building. During the restoration, Wilkinson said divers had cleaned and repaired pipes under the ferry wharves to remove seawater, crustaceans, and other matter.

Built in 21 months, it was expected to last 40 years. But now it appears increasingly small in contrast with many other tall buildings, including Sydney’s tallest, One Crown at 271 metres high, and others expected to go even higher.

Wilkinson said engineers had certified the newly renovated office block for another 50 years, but they expected it would outlast that estimate. He said the building was now setting a precedent for the sensitive renewal and reuse of existing heritage buildings.

Many of its features are things we now take for granted. There were 400 to 500 power points in every floor, Wilkinson said.

It had windows that didn’t open, a novelty at that time, and was one of the first buildings to house large computing equipment and banks of speedy lifts. It had a vertical conveyer to transfer papers up and down the building. Music was piped into some floors to calm staff.

It included decorative panels, art, and about 6690 square metres of glass mosaic tiles and 4600 square metres of Italian and Australian marble. This telegraphed that customers were in safe hands taking out life insurance with the company.

Wilkinson said: “It really did set the benchmark.”

James Bosanquet of the National Trust of Australia, NSW, said the AMP was promoted as a modernist marvel and really changed Sydney. “Before then, we had modernist buildings, but nothing on this scale.” It may have looked like a “modern mausoleum on the harbour”, he said, but its curved walls allowed it to control the amount of light throughout the day.

It was among many changes to transform Circular Quay about that time, ranging from the railway in 1954, the Cahill Expressway in 1958, the Overseas Passenger Terminal (also 1958), and later, in 1973, the Opera House.

“An awful lot was happening quickly, and it reflected the feeling that Sydney was coming of age.”

Professor Philip Oldfield, the head of the School of Built Environment at the University of NSW, said it was Sydney’s first real skyscraper, “built with all the mod cons you’d expect for a post-war office – open plan floor plates, curtain wall glazing, and even novel spray-on fire-proofing to the steel frame.”

Skyscrapers had been springing up in cities around the world. But in Sydney, Oldfield said, fears about the fire safety of taller buildings, and a desire to extend the city outwards rather than upwards, resulted in the 1912 Height of Buildings Act, which limited buildings to about 13 storeys.

“It wasn’t until 1957 when the legislation was changed, fuelled by competition with Melbourne, that buildings like the AMP Tower became possible.”

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