Axial respect: a complimentary backdrop to Sydney's landmarks

175 Liverpool Street

Overlooking Hyde Park and the ANZAC War Memorial, 175 Liverpool Street will provide a complementary backdrop to these sites of great civic significance.

The dual 36-storey tower development will include 289 apartments, 812sqm of retail space, and 10,098sqm of commercial space to be located within the lower six levels.

The intent is to reconcile and respond authentically to each distinct and contrasting urban condition – the symmetry and order of Hyde Park with its Art Deco War Memorial and the gritty urbanism of Surry Hills’ warehouses and laneways – while uniting a pair of identical towers into a singular wholistic language.

Replacing an existing commercial building, the design for Shimao Group is scaled to respond to the war memorial and honour the sequence of spaces on the axis. It extends the axis into the site where a 6-storey high ‘urban room’ serves as a covered public open space. Formal entries to the residential towers are located off this sheltered space along with outdoor dining that provides an activated through-site link between the towers.

Guy Lake

Director, Bates Smart

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The pedestrian link transitions through a narrow laneway to the south to open out into an existing pocket park. The renewal of the park will be achieved through a process of rewilding and thoughtful connection to Country.

To respect the primacy of the memorial, a ‘quiet’ building free from visual distractions and unnecessary formal manipulation was designed as not to distract from the memorial’s visual prominence. A recessive palette of honed and polished precast concrete and brickwork with bronze metallic detailing recalls the memorial’s stately materiality and paired-back simplicity.

Using the elemental simplicity of a column and lintel frame as a unifying language, the finishes adjust to the contrasting urban conditions, while the frame’s verticality references the memorial’s scale and proportions.

The towers terminate on the skyline in an open-air loggia, balancing the composition’s symmetry.

Details

Client

Shimao Group

Collaborators

  • ASPECT Studios
  • Barbara Flynn
  • Yhonnie Scarce
  • Janis Constable

Location

Sydney | Gadigal Country, Australia

Year

2022

Status

Ongoing

Area

50,410 sqm

Awards

  • City of Sydney Design Excellence Competition Winner, 2021