A 55-storey office tower complete with a rooftop garden overlooking the Sydney Harbour Bridge will become North Sydney’s tallest tower, under plans before council.
Designed by Hassell, the tower at 110–122 Walker Street, North Sydney is being pitched as the “future of sustainable workplaces” in what will become one of the most accessible districts in Sydney with the opening of the Victoria Cross Metro Station on Miller Street in 2024.
The developer Stockland said in a statement that it continued to foresee strong demand for quality workplaces in the post-COVID landscape. Hassell principal Liz Westgarth said the project offered an opportunity to push a social and environmental design vision for a resilient place for future generations.
“As the nature of when, where and how we choose to do our work continues to evolve, it was also important to design a building that supports a diverse range of working styles,” she said.
“Therefore, our research into the future of work and the impacts of COVID-19 helped shape the workplace offer, which will allow for highly personalized and efficient planning configurations to meet tenant’s exact demands both now and into the future.”
110 Walker Street by Hassell.
The building’s design is defined by a porous ground plane that extends the public realm, a simple tower form, articulated to appear as two slender forms, and a crowning rooftop, where the facades extend upwards, providing protection for the rooftop garden.
“The highly activated public domain has been designed to accommodate layered activities over the lower ground and ground levels, offering a diverse landscape setting, activated street frontages with retail and food and beverage offerings to support the building and precinct,” Hassell’s design statement reads.
“This vibrancy and warmth will extend up into the podium. The transparent podium facade celebrates exchange and interaction between the public, semi-public and private experiences within the base of the tower.”
Through-site links will complement existing urban laneways in the precinct, while the landscape planting and materiality takes inspiration from the “tapestries of sculpted rocks, white blossoms and perfumed gullies” of the Middle Harbour landscape.
The design prioritizes sustainability, with an efficient structural system that aims to minimize materials, and a façade design that passively shades the workplaces. “The facade design proposes a simple conceptual approach that orientates solid portions of the facade to the north to help passively shade the facade whilst opening up the highly desirable eastern and south eastern views,” states Hassell.
Construction of the tower is estimated to cost $512 million. The development application is currently before the North Sydney Council, and is to be determined by the Sydney North Planning Panel.
