Foster + Partners has been selected as the winners of an international competition to design a new office tower for Sydney’s Circular Quay, steps away from the city’s harbor and iconic Opera House. Located between George and Pitt streets, the tower will serve as a centerpiece of the urban district’s reinvigorated masterplan, featuring a scheme characterized by its array of pedestrian pathways that cross through the site at multiple levels. Injecting life into the area, the laneways will be lined with retail shops, cafes and bars, helping Sydney maintain its identity as a unique cultural destination.
“We wanted Circular Quay Tower and its surroundings to be of its place, taking advantage of its topography and unique location near Sydney Harbour,” said design team leader Gerard Evenden, Head of Studio and Senior Executive Partner at Foster + Partner. “The tower will be the centrepiece of an urban regeneration precinct that will reshape the northern end of the CBD into a vibrant community contributing to Sydney’s status as a global city.”
Standing out against the Sydney skyline, the tower will feature an innovative façade made up of a series of external cross-brace members that put the building’s structural engineering and load-tracing on display. On the south elevation, three bays of transparent elevators will be book-ended by the building’s concrete cores, animating the façade and articulating the structure’s vertical elements. By offsetting the core to one side and pushing the structure to the exterior, the interior floorplan can remain open, allowing for flexible arrangements for future tenants.
“The innovative workspaces at Circular Quay Tower are flexibly designed to support new ways of working in the 21st century so that anyone from a new start-up to large companies can enjoy this fabulous urban location,” Evenden added. “We are delighted that the jury concurred with our design vision and look forward eagerly to the next stages of the project.”
News via Foster + Partners.
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