Mixed use development in prime city location incorporates heritage, retail & office tower
In June 2010 PTW Architects won a limited competition for a complex mixed-used project in the heart of Sydney’s central business and retail district. A DA was lodged in December 2010 and approved in March 2011. On a consolidated site within the CBD of Sydney, the project is positioned between two heritage buildings on George Street and occupies the depth of a city block, also including the restoration of two heritage listed buildings on the site, facing York Street.
The new podium on George Street will connect through most of the floors on the rear heritage buildings creating a large contiguous retail floor. A pedestrian link adapting a historic cart-lane in the heritage buildings will link the two streets and also create the entry to commercial office floors on twelve floors above the podium and heritage buildings, with the core slotted into the centre of the site with minimal impact on the heritage fabric.
Within the rich context of recent CBD projects and historic buildings, the architectural language of the building focuses on simplicity and the repeated use of detail component, unique to the individual components of the project. The retail podium façade relates to the adjacent heritage buildings in both height and proportion, with sloped window boxes set within a slender framework of structure.
A large horizontal recess separates the commercial tower level above. Here the curtain wall is a ‘saw-tooth’ system with angled panes and deep mullions in every 1.5m bay, and more solid precast concrete panels on the side elevations. Above the heritage buildings the office floors are built as a lightweight steel box supported by a long-span steel truss to minimise the impact on the historic buildings below. The main façade uses a random pattern of solid elements and glazed panels with proportional reference to the masonry facades below.
|
