AWA Tower
Encyclopedia
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, in the state of New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
built for Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Limited
Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Limited
Amalgamated Wireless Ltd . Throughout most of the 20th century AWA was Australia's largest and most prominent electronics organisation, undertaking development, manufacture and distribution of radio, telecommunications, television and audio equipment as well as broadcasting services.After the...
. The AWA Tower consists of a radio transmission tower atop a 15-story building. It is located in the Sydney central business district
Sydney central business district
The Sydney central business district is the main commercial centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It extends southwards for about 3 kilometres from Sydney Cove, the point of first European settlement. Its north–south axis runs from Circular Quay in the north to Central railway station in...
at 45-47 York Street
York Street
York Street, currently styled as The Jakemans Stadium for sponsorship purposes, is a football stadium in Boston, England, and is the home ground of Boston United. Originally called Shodfriars Lane, football has been played on the site since the late 19th century by a variety of Boston teams, but...
close to Wynyard Park and Wynyard railway station
Wynyard railway station, Sydney
Wynyard is a major underground CityRail station in the central business district of Sydney, Australia, 2.05 km from Central. Wynyard averages 108000 passenger movements per day Monday to Friday.-History:The station opened on 28 February 1932...
.
History
The AWA Tower was designed by architects Morrow and Gordon from 1937–1939 and became one of the most notable commercial buildings of Sydney. It brought geometric Art DecoArt Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
design and modernism to the city skyline with polished trachyte facing at ground level intending to signal a progressive and go-ahead firm. The 1939 steel-framed brick building was designed by Robertson, Marks and McCredie. The tower was modelled on Berlin's Funkturm Tower
Funkturm Berlin
The Berliner Funkturm or Funkturm Berlin is a transmitting tower in Berlin, built between 1924 and 1926 by Heinrich Straumer. It is nicknamed "der lange Lulatsch" and is one of the best-known points of interest in the city of Berlin. It stands in the Berlin trade fair ground in the...
, built a few years earlier, and both took inspiration from the Eiffel Tower
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower is a puddle iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris. Built in 1889, it has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world...
in Paris. The communications tower was an integral part of the structure and remained the tallest structure in Sydney until the 1960s. The tower is 46 metres (151 ft) high atop a 55 metres (180.4 ft) high building. The tower was 48 metres, and at the 97-metre point of the building there was a viewing platform.
The building is decorated with appropriate symbols of communication, including a winged Pegasus, said to be chosen by Sir Ernest Fisk, the pioneer of wireless technology and a founding director of AWA. For many years, the tower wore the sign "Beam Wireless", a service providing radio contact to commercial shipping on the England–Australia route introduced in 1927.
Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Limited was the first to manufacture televisions in Australia, and in the 1960s large AWA neon logos were attached to the building to symbolise this fact. In later years, the company expanded into a wide range of electronic products, including gaming systems. In 2000, when the company folded, the building was sold to Jupiter's Casino Group
Conrad Jupiters
Jupiters Hotel and Casino was Queensland's first casino and hotel complex, which is located in the suburb of Broadbeach on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia. The casino is situated next to the Nerang River and is operated by Echo Entertainment Group...
. It is covered by a conservation order, and remains known as the AWA building, although the big red AWA signs have been removed. The tower, which was demolished and rebuilt in 1994, remains illuminated at night, but the viewing platform has long gone.
The tower (featuring the AWA logo) features in the science fiction film The Matrix
The Matrix
The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving...
; when Neo and Trinity rescue Morpheus from the agents, the AWA Tower can be seen below as they make their escape by helicopter.
External links
- "AWA Tower" database record and article (CC-By-SA) at the Dictionary of SydneyDictionary of SydneyThe Dictionary of Sydney is a digital humanities project to produce an online, expert-written encyclopedia of all aspects of the history of Sydney. The project is a partnership between the City of Sydney, the University of Sydney, the State Library of New South Wales, the State Records Authority of...
, viewed 7 September 2010. - State Library of New South Wales - AWA Tower
- AWA Limited
- Linking a Nation: Australia's Transport and Communications 1788 - 1970
- Sydney's 'Toaster' Building - An Intruder in Distinguished Company
- Entry on Skyscraperpage.com
- Entry on Structurae
Dictionary of Sydney
The Dictionary of Sydney is a digital humanities project to produce an online, expert-written encyclopedia of all aspects of the history of Sydney. The project is a partnership between the City of Sydney, the University of Sydney, the State Library of New South Wales, the State Records Authority of...
, 2008 and licensed under CC by-sa. Imported on 29 November 2011.