Property group Poly Australia is client for the building at 210-220 George Street, which will be part of an ensemble of buildings designed by international architecture practices, including Foster & Partners, Kengo Kuma and Kerry Hill.
It will be in the emerging Alfred, Pitt, Daley and George Streets (APDG) precinct. The historic neighbourhood has been slated by the city for transformation into arts and cultural district by the city of Sydney.
Grimshaw said that its scheme seeks to capture the spirit of this transformation, with a ‘human-experience’-led workplace tower, designed to attract the emergent ‘millennial worker’, servicing Sydney’s growing creative and knowledge-based economies and tech and finance innovators.
‘Sydney is uniquely placed to attract and retain 21st-century talent, we see the opportunity to create a leading-edge workplace that inspires the day-to-day working lives of its occupants, enlivens the public realm and adds vibrancy to city life,” said Grimshaw managing partner Andrew Cortese.
The compact site is flanked to the north, east and west by significantly taller structures. This called for a design response that relies on the experience of the workplace, rather than on ratings, aspect or location, said the firm. The 26-storey workplace is proposed as communities of 90 to 120 people, across twin floorplates. The larger floors within the lower-rise section will present as double height, arching cantilevered terraces opening onto George Street. Within the high-rise, the smaller floors contain a suspended mezzanine with sunlit double-height volumes.
The two-storey volumetric approach offers the twin benefits of an increased lettable area and senvironmental amenity; with greater visual and physical connectivity, daylight and air circulation.
The west facing George street facade is composed of vaulting arched cantilevers and concrete soffits,. Behind this is the primary working floorplate, a glazed vertical element that spans the length of the tower and is set back to provide a tower lobby entrance off the corner of George and Dalley Streets.
A sculpted, concrete core sits on the eastern boundary of the site, creating a contiguous floor plate giving the opportunity for public art installation.
A room atop of the building references the vaulting shells of the Opera House.
Immersion into the public realm is another key driver. At ground level, a double height retail and entry lobby extends along George Street, with the opportunity to integrate public art as well as entertainment, drinking and dining offerings, contributing to the creation of thriving night-time economy.
Construction of the AU$90m (£55m) tower is due to begin in early 2019, with completion expected in 2022.
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