Brookfield Place Sydney

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  • 2022

  • Architectural
    Architectual Design

Commissioned By:

Brookfield Properties

Designed In:

Australia

Brookfield Place Sydney is a highly complex mixed-use project. It comprises a 27-storey, PCA Premium Grade, 6 Star Green Star and 5.5 Star NABERS Energy-rated office tower, two heritage buildings, retail space, and a new entrance hall for Wynyard Station. It has been designed for multiple public and private stakeholders.


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  • CHALLENGE
  • SOLUTION
  • IMPACT
  • MORE
  • The challenge was to deliver important new public routes that would open up the precinct whilst transforming the site to create a world class and expansive transit hall for the busy Wynyard Station. At the same time the design needed to sensitively integrate the old with the new across multiple buildings on a single site and restore heritage assets such as the Shell House clocktower and facade, as well as creating a PCA A-Grade work space that provides amenity to workers – all while ensuring public safety and the uninterrupted operation of the concourse during construction.

  • The primary design move was to unlock the development with a simple yet architecturally complex design move to hang the central core of the workplace tower, using innovative engineering to transfer the shear load to the external walls and thereby open up the transit hall below to create a world class space without compromising the office tower above. It also delivered an important new east–west pedestrian connection through the block, both key to the project’s success. We also retained and restored the clock tower of Shell House sustainably retaining this important heritage asset and integrating it into the project.

  • The development has transformed an entire precinct within Sydney’s CBD and facilitated sweeping, long-lasting changes that deliver benefits for Sydney as a whole. It has upgraded public infrastructure, restored critical heritage buildings, renewed and created new public walkways, and delivered a PCA Premium Grade, 6 Star Green Star and 5.5 Star NABERS Energy-rated office tower. The project also enabled the sustainable restoration, adaptation and upgrade of two heritage assets – including the tallest retained facade in the southern hemisphere, measuring 65.5m in height – integrating them into the development and breathing new life into them for a new generation.

  • The centrepiece office tower features generous, flexible floorplates that showcase a superb workplace design standard throughout. Community and the end-user experience are prioritised with quality facilities, amenities and finishes applied across a highly functional layout for long-term adaptability and resiliency. The sustainable features include a facade system with automated blinds that respond to solar load, a chilled beam system along the perimeter, and substantial cycle storage and hospitality-standard end-of-trip facilities. The adjacent heritage buildings – 285 George Street and Shell House – were amalgamated with the tower, creating 1,700m2 of roof terraces and encouraging wellness. We unlocked the site with groundbreaking engineering that transfers the tower’s structural dead load down through mega-columns while distributing the shear load to the building’s exterior – much like the flying buttresses of a gothic cathedral. This has allowed the tower’s core to be suspended above the concourse, resulting in a world-class transit hall that transforms how people move through and use the site. Developed by Brookfield Properties, the precinct has secured its premium brand status, ‘Brookfield Place’. Awarded to just five other best-in-class precincts globally, this status is based on a strict range of criteria, from state-of-the-art building systems to leading sustainability credentials and curated placemaking activities.