Daytime view across Chifley Square: the curved glass-and-stone facade, but with palms in front, a construction hoarding at street level and ANZ signage. Moderate quality.

Qantas House

68-96 Hunter Street, Chifley Square

Rudder, Littlemore & Rudder; design by Felix Tavener. 1955 to 1957. Modernism.

Size
Curtain wall 46 m, about 13 levels
Material
Green-tinted glass, teal enamelled steel, Adelong black and Bookham green granite
Status
State Heritage Register, 2001. Offices

This was the first purpose-built world headquarters of Qantas Empire Airways, opened by Robert Menzies in 1957. Its curve follows a semicircle proposed for Chifley Square back in 1908, so the building helped finally make the square it faces. It was an early glass curtain wall for Sydney, and it was the first office to use Adelong black and Bookham green granite, a deliberate choice of Australian stone. In 1959 it won a RIBA Bronze Medal. David Littlemore of the same firm later helped finish the Opera House.

Read about Modernism in Sydney

Sources

  1. Qantas House, Wikipedia
  2. Modern Movement Architecture in Central Sydney: Heritage Study Review (2019), City of Sydney / Tanner Kibble Denton
  3. David Surrey Littlemore, Wikipedia