While most ageing apartment blocks fade into the background, the most infamous of the late architect Harry Seidler’s creations continues to stand out.

And in the most defiant way.

There’s nothing subtle about it. Rising from the water’s edge it holds a position behind Sydney’s two greatest icons; the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

While the other buildings in its surrounds slope down towards the water it stubbornly holds a domineering position over them all.

Its shape, its colour and its location all generate opinions ranging the spectrum from love to hate.

We asked the people who know it best to tell us what they think and reveal what life is like inside the golden bricked tower with the best views in the city.

THE FAMILY

BLUES Point Tower has become a warm, welcoming home for Ricky Silbersher and her daughter Scout.

They are several floors above the ground but mornings are like waking up on a boat.

Their beds are built up to the windows and they open their eyes to a view filled with harbour, sky and city.

Ms Silbersher works from home and never feels stuck inside as there is always life outside from helicopters flying past to cruise ships moving slowly on the water.

“The world is constantly circulating around you and you feel like you are in the middle of it,” she said.

“I don’t need to go out to the world. It comes in to us.

“It’s magic.”

As a designer, she has a tough time with the building.

Instead of a panorama of glass, the view from her sitting room is obscured by a wall and she feels this design was a disservice to the future residents.

And, like many others in the block, she is frustrated by the lack of a substantial balcony.

If Harry Seidler were alive today she would have an argument with him about his design choices.

“I would say it’s a terrible slight to create a giant sliding glass door onto nothing,” she said.

“You have a ledge to put plants on.

“That’s an insult. You are living in this space and we can’t go outside and have a chair and sit in the sun.

“It’s a postcard for us. We have to live a postcard life.”

However, she has an interesting solution. She believes the building would be the perfect canvas for a colourful work inspired by the artist Piet Mondrian.

“If you painted this building it would be amazing,” she said.

“It would be the building everyone wanted to look at.”

THE STAFFER

STEPHEN VALVIS has the glow of a man with the best job in the city.

His sentences end with happy laughs and no wonder when his 25-storey office has a panoramic view of the harbour.

“Where can you work and have views like this?,” he said.

“You are on top of the world really.”

Mr Valvis is proud to show off the tower and its spectacular rooftop.

He started working there almost 10 years ago and describes his role as babying the famous building.

As the building supervisor he monitors everything that’s going on and fixes any problems before they deteriorate and end up costing a fortune.

“Maintenance is number one,” he said.

In his eyes the tower has a lot of character. It’s filled with life and on New Year’s Eve the population in the 144 apartments swells up to 1400.

He feels part of a family and has watched children grow up in its halls and waved them off to school.

View from the roof top of Blues Point Tower

Mr Valvis brushes off the criticisms levelled at the building, explaining that it’s different for those who live and work there.

“It doesn’t matter what it looks like — you just love the place. You love the building and you love everyone around here. It’s an amazing place,” he said.

“You listen to all these other people who say it’s just the ugliest place and all the rest of it.

“You don’t take any notice of that anymore. You defend the building after that.

“Why does it keep coming up? You have got to remember it’s a feature now, it’s part of Sydney. Get over it.”

THE LIFER

FOR Fleur Dickinson the best thing about living in Blues Point Tower in the view. From the comfort of her couch she looks out over the great blue expanse of Sydney Harbour streaked by boats leaving white wakes in their trail.

“Very few places you see that Bridge and Opera House view smack in your face,” she said.

“I wake up every day and I almost have my mantra of ‘I’m so bloody lucky living here’. I adore it.”

Ms Dickinson bought into the tower 10 years ago with her mother and they created a large apartment out of two neighbouring units.

Her love for the building would soften the harshest of critics.

She enjoys the strong sense of community within the tower as people talk to their neighbours and “everybody knows virtually everybody”.

She also likes Seidler’s austere design and her choice of interiors have brought it up to date while still being respectful to the original. A dark wooden floor and large mirror on the wall add to the feeling of space, and help make the most of the view.

“I like this brutalist style but other people don’t. You are either in love with it or you hate it,” she said.

Ms Dickinson does acknowledge that the building has its quirks. She would dearly love to be able to sit outside but all the building was granted was tiny French balconies. The balconies themselves also interrupt the view as they fenced in with a “chicken wire” style metal grid. And the floor to ceiling height also isn’t the most generous.

“People don’t realise how old the building is,” she said.

“That’s why we have windows the way they are, the size they are, and because the building is now heritage listed with are stuck with them … and no balconies.”

Ms Dickinson will never sell her apartment. She’s at the centre of the city with the ferry on her doorstep and the train just a short walk up Blues Point Rd.

“The whole family know we are never selling. It’s always going to be mine. They are taking me out of here in a coffin.”