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Sydney Architecture
Images- Central Business District World Square |
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architect |
Crone |
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location |
George Street. (Former site of Anthony
Hordern's) World Square covers an entire city block bounded by George, Liverpool, Pitt and Goulburn Streets , midway between Central and Town Hall Stations and is located on George Street bus routes. It is just a short walk from the light rail, and also has its own monorail stop. |
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date |
c. 2004 |
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style |
Late 20th-Century Post-Modern |
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construction |
rc frame |
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type |
Apartment Building |
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notes |
This was a hole in the ground for 20 years until the recent boom. Flashy type of architecture quite appropriate for this very dynamic and cosmopolitan entertainment district. A bit like Times Square in spirit. |
 
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Fixing the hole January 8, 2005 SMH A decades-old blot on the Sydney landscape is finally taking shape, writes Tim Dick. In Greek mythology, the fruit of the lotus was meant to make those who ate it feel dreamy and contentedly forgetful. In modern Sydney, the lotus flower was meant to shape the four towers of World Square, but two decades of announcements, delays and court battles left few people content and the lotus dream long forgotten. Instead, the centre of Sydney's skyline has been wrenched south by three tall and decidedly unlotuslike buildings on the long-derelict city block bounded by George, Pitt Goulburn and Liverpool streets. There is one still to come, Multiplex's Latitude East 41-storey apartment and commercial tower, now on exhibition. It will join Meriton's residential cathedral, World Tower, and the newly finished Ernst & Young commercial tower, which the accounting firm has just occupied. The Hordern Towers apartments and Avillion Hotel filled in the first part of the CBD's most famous hole in the ground six years ago. The new building will complete the stuttering redevelopment of the block, once dominated by the Anthony Hordern's store. If approved and built as planned, it will rise 102 metres above street level, piling more than 24,000 square metres of floor space onto a ground area a sixth of that size, housing 164 apartments and a host of offices and shops. Basic construction costs are $56.5 million, before land or fit-out costs, which makes it subject to approval by the Central Sydney Planning Committee, the body which oversees major works in the city centre and is dominated by State Government appointees. It was the Government which consented to the beginnings of the block's huge changes, which started when the Tan family began buying it up nearly a quarter of a century ago. From Malaysia and Singapore, the family's Ipoh Gardens group was best known for its renovation of the Queen Victoria Building. In 1981, it paid $13.5 million for Anthony Hordern's, which was built in 1905 but had been closed for more than a decade. Five years later, the then planning minister, Bob Carr, seized control of the site from the then Sydney City Council, which the Government sacked the following year. Carr ignored objections from the National Trust and the Heritage Council of NSW, approving a $1 billion development on the site, to the disappointment of one sacked councillor, Clover Moore. She told the Herald: "It is a tragedy to see the street facade of Anthony Hordern's, to which people could relate, being demolished. I hope the developer can provide a streetscape of the same feeling with its podium." Nearly 20 years on, the developers have changed, Moore is Lord Mayor and the streetscape is nothing like the old store. Moore, however, is not commenting on the development of World Square, or whether her objections of the 1980s have been mollified. Under the Carr-approved plan, World Square was to have four 50-storey towers arranged in the shape of a lotus flower, standing on a five-storey podium, and all to be finished by the mid-'90s. But long-running industrial disputes and allegations of bribery, which led to a royal commission, beset the project. It was abandoned in 1990, with only a 10-storey hole in the ground to show for it. It was covered up for the Olympics at the insistence of the former lord mayor, Frank Sartor, with the rest left largely as it was. In 2000, Meriton began planning World Tower, while Multiplex started on the Ernst & Young building. Both are now occupied, although the retail space is not, and the block has transformed the southern part of Australia's most important CBD. It sits across the road from the slick Civic Hotel and near Michael Pavlellis's World Square News, which has traded since 2000. "The changes have been dramatic," Pavlellis said. "Five years ago, across the road was all boarded up, just homeless sleeping there. World Tower was just a hole in the ground." He said the area was "a lot rougher, a little bit dangerous", with bag snatches and more street crime. But with thousands of new residents and tens of thousands of office workers new to the city's south, things have changed. "It's a really vibrant area, especially at night-time," he said. "Business has picked up a lot, but the downside is that rents have probably tripled." Higher rents have pushed out some smaller retailers, with specialised shops, such as those selling Korean food, surviving with the support of communities with significant populations in the area. The NSW Government Architect, Chris Johnson, who sits on the Central Sydney Planning Committee, thinks the block is "coming together pretty well". "It was probably, early on, trying to be too big in scope," he said. "I think that the World Tower is a pretty interesting building for residential and the [Ernst & Young] building ... is pretty classy. The energy of Sydney as a global city has clearly moved south from Circular Quay, and that's a very positive aspect." And with a city centre as skinny as Sydney's, he says, that was needed. Whether in the shape of a lotus or not. |
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Media Release
Crone Nation Architects design the 'Latitude' building at World Square
Architect Greg Crone - responsible for King St Wharf, Citigroup Centre and 400 George St - has been resposible for this CBD office design. The design for Latitude at World Square comprises a low rise office on the corner of George and Goulburn Street and retail complex incorporating a series of laneways with a high rise commercial tower for Ernst and Young. Crowned by a glass box which will provide a unique signature on the city skyline, the project is bounded by George, Goulburn, Liverpool and Pitt Streets, the development has been designed as a showcase project for environmental sustainability with energy efficiency, sun shading, natural ventilation and light, key elements incorporated into its design. Greg Crone comments "Our World Square design introduces a sophisticated concept for Sydney CBD development with inspirational commercial, working and recreational environments that integrate the latest in architectural and technological design excellence and maximize communication opportunities." A stepped development from the podium to the commercial tower, it has blade walls to clearly define and articulate entrances and walls. Greg Crone continues "On the commercial side, we are offering a highly innovative design with the large footprints for horizontal office space in the city. This is a large offering for same level CBD office accommodation." Large floor space offers significant benefits, for example, it means companies can place more staff (and divisions) together, while the option also remains for vertical configuration. Greg Crone comments
"Improving 'face to face" communication and social interaction
has been important in our design objectives. The spaces significantly
improve communication by having a large organization on one floor instead
of being separated onto the four levels of a conventional office tower. In
the commercial area we have specifically designed The Podium for relaxed
interaction for the Internally, the glass-capped thoroughfares, glass lifts, stairways, balconies and colonnades have created a sense of elegant transparency, spaciousness and naturalness. At the ground level a spectacular café lined piazza forms the north-south internal street axis linking seamlessly to the adjoining apartment development on World Square. Crone says he designed the building to become a community, a kind of urban village. He says: "I believe this will be the first Sydney CBD development where the office and retail is so completely entwined. "Our research and overseas experience shows that people want to move away from traditional work environments. "People spend so much of their lives working, their office space has to be so much more than simply a place to earn money. "It has to be enjoyable, and there has to be scope for friendly interaction with other people. So we have really focused on the 'community' with this design which ensures a total experience for everyone using the building." World Tower, Sydney's tallest residential building is being constructed adjacent to the Latitude site. One of Australia's leading architectural companies, Nation Fender Katsalidis Architects (NSW) won a design competition for the tower. As a result of this joint project, Greg Crone and Bob Nation have now joined design practices, with the formation of Crone Nation Architects. Features of the development include: - Extensive retail It is also adjacent to the bustling, energy-filled Spanish Quarter and Chinatown precincts, which are packed with cafes, restaurants and bars. And people, 24 hours a day. Meanwhile, Darling Harbour is just a 10 minutes walk down Liverpool St, while the shopping and luxe life of the Queen Victoria Building is even closer. There are literally thousands of quality affordable, apartments within a few minutes. Hundreds more quality apartments are due to come on stream over the next three to four years. For example, one of Australia's leading architectural companies, Nation Fender Katsalidis, won a design competition for a residential tower that will be built adjacent to the Crone site. Affordable accommodation for visiting interstate employees is also readily available in a wide range of three and four-star hotels, while five-star quarters are available at Sheraton On The Park. In summary, this new development is literally in the middle of Sydney. It offers a wonderful, affordable opportunity to become involved in a completely unique 24-hour working and social environment. Thanks to http://www.archizine.com/ |
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www.sydneyarchitecture.com |
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links |
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World
Square, Sydney will be the location of a 24-hour working community,
seamlessly integrating office and retail into a total environment.