A wedge-shaped office building reaching 37 storeys could be built between Market and Park streets in Sydney’s Midtown precinct, under a proposal before planning authorities.
The building at 133–145 Castlereagh Street would deliver around 100,000 square metres of office space and include a series of terraces, above the podium and across the sloping top of the tower. It would serve as an expansion of Stockland’s Piccadilly Complex, which currently comprises two office towers of 14- and 32-storeys and a two-level shopping centre.
3XN has produced a reference design to support the application, which will require an amendment to planning controls, and a design competition will be held for the final design.
The building would incorporate a three-to-ten-storey podium to match adjoining building and podium heights, with floor space to be used for the Wesley Mission/Uniting Church, and a mid-block through-site link aimed at accentuating Piccadilly Complex’s active frontage along Castlereagh and Pitt Streets.
The proponents note in planning documents that Sydney’s Midtown was not long ago considered a retail shopping district with “antiquated” commercial office space, but that a handful of recently approved redevelopments within the immediate context of Piccadily would breathe new life into the area.
“The redevelopment of Piccadilly will not only add pedestrian activity to the public domain of the revitalized precinct, but it will also provide a variety of large, contiguous commercial floor plates in the heart of the CBD to meet market demand,” reads the urban study report. “The large floorplates utilise an elongated central core that eliminates the deep, sub-optimal daylight zone in the middle of most large office floorplates.
“The podium terraces over-look the dynamic, active urban street-scape while the tower terraces created by the sloped, solar access plane to Hyde Park provide valuable views to Sydney’s, large green space and Harbour views beyond.”
The planning amendment is recommended for approval and will go before a full City of Sydney council meeting on 28 June. It will then go to the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment for gateway determination, followed by public exhibition.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
