Aurora Place
88 Phillip Street and 155 Macquarie Street, Sydney
Renzo Piano Building Workshop with Lend Lease Design. 1998 to 2000, designed from 1996. Contemporary.
- Size
- The architects say 200 m and 44 storeys. Wikipedia says 188 m to the roof, 218 m to the spire and 41 floors. Apartments 17 storeys. Width and the lower roof edge are estimated from photographs
- Material
- Fritted glass with cream ceramic particles, terracotta, a steel mast
- Status
- Offices and apartments
Aurora Place replaced the State Office Block, and the Macquarie Street apartments replaced its low Premier’s Wing. Renzo Piano’s office presented the concept to the Central Sydney Planning Committee in December 1996. Lend Lease developed it with East Asia Property Group and its design arm worked on the building, with Innovarchi representing Piano in Sydney, Arup as engineers and HPA as architects for the apartments.
The office tower is wrapped in glass that is screen-printed with cream ceramic particles. On the architects’ account, this covering extends 30 m across the building to make a large, slightly curved triangular sail. The skin runs past the frame at each end, and a consultant said at the time that the extended fins reduce turbulence on the facade. Wikipedia links the glass and the sail to the Opera House, about 800 m to the north.
The 2004 jury noted that the tower has a smaller base than the usual office podium. That leaves a piazza between it and the apartments, under a glass canopy held by a web of cable. Wintergardens with opening louvres sit at two corners of the tower. Wikipedia places them at the north-west and south-east, the 2004 jury at the north and south. The building sold in January 2001 for $485 million and won the Sir John Sulman Medal in 2004.
Sources
- Aurora Place, Wikipedia
- Aurora Place office and residential buildings, Renzo Piano Building Workshop
- Piano in Sydney, Architecture Australia
- Award for commercial buildings, Architecture Australia