The owners of Sydney’s Harry Seidler-designed Grosvenor Place have unveiled approved plans for a new forecourt development for the forty-four-storey building, which opened in 1988.
The proposed additions to Grosvenor Place are designed by Harry Seidler & Associates and include internal alterations to the Quadrant building on the corner of Harrington and Essex Streets, a new building within the Northern Forecourt and landscaping works. The proposed works pay homage to the design of the original building by retaining all its architectural elements and using its geometries in the new built forms.
Grosvenor Place will take inspiration from the unrealised Grollo Tower proposal in Melbourne CBD by Seidler, which straddles the railyards between Flinders Street and Batman Avenue.”The design of the new works may surprise some, but for us it is grounded in the architectural direction of some of Harry’s last unbuilt works,” says Greg Holman, project architect at Harry Seidler & Associates.
The project will the delivered in two stages. The first, to be completed by mid-2015, will respond to the changing habits of workers who occupy the building, with the installation of parking for 170 bicycles, thirty new showers and over 500 lockers to the basement of the building. The redevelopment will also include new retail tenancies.
Stage two, to be completed in early 2016, includes an additional four retail tenancies and a culinary hub offering an indoor and outdoor food piazza operating throughout the day and night.
Grosvenor Place is situated at the northern end of Sydney’s CBD, bounded by three streets – including one of the city’s busiest, George Street. The development will be executed in tandem with the City of Sydney’s plans to transform George Street, which include a light rail system and better public space.
In January 2015, the MLC Centre in nearby Martin Place, also designed by Harry Seidler, lodged a similar development application for its proposed forecourt additions.