Grosvenor Place (Sydney)
Encyclopedia
Grosvenor Place is a skyscraper in George Street
, Sydney
, Australia
, which was designed by renowned architect Harry Seidler
.
building occupies an entire block in Sydney's financial district between The Rocks
and the Sydney central business district
. The complex includes Johnsons Building, Federation House and Royal Naval House -- three low-set buildings in Grosvenor Street
-- with a diagonal path for pedestrians between them and the main structure, which is 180 m tall and contains 44 floors.
The premium grade office tower was designed by Harry Seidler and Associates. In 1989, Grosvenor Place won the RAIA Lustig & Moar National Prize. It also won the 1991 Sulman Award, the fifth design by Seidler and his third office tower to win this award.
Grosvenor Place was instigated by Bob Hammond who stipulated that the building must generate long term value. This mandate was realised through the design of a large, open floor design
that allowed whole organisations to occupy complete levels. Internal column
s were excluded to provide an uninterrupted space that can be custom designed by tenants.
s with an elliptical central core. The positioning and orientation of Grosvenor Place's two quadrants was chosen to maximise views down George Street
towards the Sydney Harbour, Sydney Harbour Bridge
and the Sydney Opera House
.
Sunshade
s provide the primary energy saving
measure and eliminate sky glare
. The sunshades are angled depending on their orientation to the sun. Structurally the building consists of a concrete core with steel beams
and prefabricated granite
facade
s. Each beam had exactly the same dimensions which reduced building costs and construction time. Each floor contains 2,000 m2 of space, providing a total floor area of 90 000 m2.
True to Seidler's belief that large buildings should be a place where art is displayed, Grosvenor Place contains works by Frank Stella
in the 3-storey lobby. The building also houses a 4-level basement carpark and a food court.
George Street, Sydney
George Street is one of Sydney's most notable city streets. There are more high rise buildings and more ASX 100 companies located here than anywhere else in Australia, and is well known for being busy around-the-clock...
, Sydney
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...
, 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...
, which was designed by renowned architect Harry Seidler
Harry Seidler
Harry Seidler, AC OBE was an Austrian-born Australian architect who is considered to be one of the leading exponents of Modernism's methodology in Australia and the first architect to fully express the principles of the Bauhaus in Australia.Harry Seidler designed more than 180 buildings and he...
.
Description
The modern styleModernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
building occupies an entire block in Sydney's financial district between The Rocks
The Rocks, New South Wales
The Rocks is an urban locality, tourist precinct and historic area of Sydney's city centre, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the southern shore of Sydney Harbour, immediately north-west of the Sydney central business district...
and 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...
. The complex includes Johnsons Building, Federation House and Royal Naval House -- three low-set buildings in Grosvenor Street
Grosvenor Street, Sydney
Grosvenor Street is a street in Sydney, Australia. It runs east-west from York Street to George Street. It is in the Local Government Area of the City of Sydney and the postcode is 2000. It is 200 metres long.-Points of interest:Grosvenor Place...
-- with a diagonal path for pedestrians between them and the main structure, which is 180 m tall and contains 44 floors.
The premium grade office tower was designed by Harry Seidler and Associates. In 1989, Grosvenor Place won the RAIA Lustig & Moar National Prize. It also won the 1991 Sulman Award, the fifth design by Seidler and his third office tower to win this award.
Grosvenor Place was instigated by Bob Hammond who stipulated that the building must generate long term value. This mandate was realised through the design of a large, open floor design
Open plan
Open plan is the generic term used in architectural and interior design for any floor plan which makes use of large, open spaces and minimizes the use of small, enclosed rooms such as private offices...
that allowed whole organisations to occupy complete levels. Internal column
Column
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a vertical structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. For the purpose of wind or earthquake engineering, columns may be designed to resist lateral forces...
s were excluded to provide an uninterrupted space that can be custom designed by tenants.
Design
The form of the skysraper features two crescentCrescent
In art and symbolism, a crescent is generally the shape produced when a circular disk has a segment of another circle removed from its edge, so that what remains is a shape enclosed by two circular arcs of different diameters which intersect at two points .In astronomy, a crescent...
s with an elliptical central core. The positioning and orientation of Grosvenor Place's two quadrants was chosen to maximise views down George Street
George Street, Sydney
George Street is one of Sydney's most notable city streets. There are more high rise buildings and more ASX 100 companies located here than anywhere else in Australia, and is well known for being busy around-the-clock...
towards the Sydney Harbour, Sydney Harbour Bridge
Sydney Harbour Bridge
The Sydney Harbour Bridge is a steel through arch bridge across Sydney Harbour that carries rail, vehicular, bicycle and pedestrian traffic between the Sydney central business district and the North Shore. The dramatic view of the bridge, the harbour, and the nearby Sydney Opera House is an iconic...
and the Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
.
Sunshade
Sunshade
A space sunshade or sunshield can be described as analogous to a parasol that diverts or otherwise reduces some of a star's rays, preventing them from hitting a planet and thereby reducing its insolation, which results in less heating of the planet....
s provide the primary energy saving
Energy conservation
Energy conservation refers to efforts made to reduce energy consumption. Energy conservation can be achieved through increased efficient energy use, in conjunction with decreased energy consumption and/or reduced consumption from conventional energy sources...
measure and eliminate sky glare
Glare (vision)
Glare is difficulty seeing in the presence of bright light such as direct or reflected sunlight or artificial light such as car headlamps at night. Because of this, some cars include mirrors with automatic anti-glare functions....
. The sunshades are angled depending on their orientation to the sun. Structurally the building consists of a concrete core with steel beams
Beam (structure)
A beam is a horizontal structural element that is capable of withstanding load primarily by resisting bending. The bending force induced into the material of the beam as a result of the external loads, own weight, span and external reactions to these loads is called a bending moment.- Overview...
and prefabricated granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
s. Each beam had exactly the same dimensions which reduced building costs and construction time. Each floor contains 2,000 m2 of space, providing a total floor area of 90 000 m2.
True to Seidler's belief that large buildings should be a place where art is displayed, Grosvenor Place contains works by Frank Stella
Frank Stella
Frank Stella is an American painter and printmaker, significant within the art movements of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction.-Biography:...
in the 3-storey lobby. The building also houses a 4-level basement carpark and a food court.
See also
- Buildings and architecture of SydneyBuildings and architecture of SydneyThe Architecture of Sydney is not characterised by any one architectural style, having accumulated and developed over its 200 year history.Under early nineteenth-century the tenure of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, the works of Francis Greenway were the first substantial buildings for the fledgling...
- List of tallest buildings in Sydney
External links
- Grosvenor Place Official website
- Grosvenor Place, Sydney Emporis.com
- Sydney Architecture Images - Grosvenor Place