Thursday 24 November marked the opening of Salesforce Tower at Sydney Place – the city’s tallest office tower. Designed by Foster + Partners, in collaboration with Architectus, Robert Bird Group and Arup, the 55-storey building is located between George and Pitt Streets in proximity to Sydney’s iconic harbour setting. At its base, the tower creates a new civic precinct comprising of pedestrian laneways, public artwork, and a new plaza on George Street.
Gerard Evenden, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners, said: “We are delighted to see the Salesforce Tower open its doors on Thursday. This is the city’s tallest commercial building, located between two of Sydney’s most iconic structures – the Opera House and Harbour Bridge. It makes a significant contribution to the city skyline with its uniquely expressive structure, creating a new home for Salesforce in Sydney.”
Ross Palmer, Senior Partner, Foster + Partners, said: “From the outset, we were immediately drawn to the unique visual appearance of the tower’s expressed structure. Its distinctive diagonal bracing on the northern facade was generated by parametric modelling, which is designed to transfer structural loads across the building in the most efficient way. Towards the south, the facade is broken down into three vertical bays of transparent lift banks that animate the building.”
Dario Spralja and Silvia Cupik, Principals, Architectus, add “Landmark projects like Sydney Place are the result of the outstanding work of many companies and people. Collaborating with Foster + Partners has been a successful and rewarding experience. The joint effort between an international and local practice provided Lendlease with an exceptional team to turn this project into reality by delivering the sophisticated architectural outcome we see today.”
Andrew Johnson, Principal of Arup, “The structural solution was derived directly from the geometry of the site and its permissible building envelope - with structural performance and material efficiency as the key drivers. What you see is a clear expression of accumulated gravity and wind load effects that generate the key stabilising elements of the braced structure”.
Nature often produces optimised structures that minimise energy or material use in organic forms. The tower’s triangulated form required an optimised structural design to efficiently transfer loads and provide torsional rigidity to resist lateral twist induced by the offset core. The resulting expressive braced structure is highly effective in utilising the full width of the tower, which has an unconventional triangulated floorplate. The use of lighter weight steel composite floors rather than a post-tensioned concrete system, which is conventional for Sydney, reduced the northern core wall thickness by approximately 25 percent, thereby significantly increasing the efficiency of the floorplate.
Working within a constrained site, the tower’s column free layout creates a flexible floorplate that will support new ways of working in the 21st century, suitable for a range of organisations from new start-ups to large corporate entities. The tower’s offset core maximises harbour views to create a workplace that enables community, collaboration, wellbeing, and productivity to thrive.
The tower has been designed to achieve a NABERS 5.5 Star energy performance, a Green Star rating of 6, and a Platinum WELL Core and Shell pre-certification rating. Its pivotal location provides abundant public transport options within a short walk to Circular Quay comprising of bus, train, ferry, and light rail connections. The tower’s low carbon transport approach is complimented by having both public and commercial cycle facilities, with capacity for over 660 bikes alongside a maintenance workshop, locker storage and changeroom facilities.
Salesforce Tower at Sydney Place also includes a network of pedestrian laneways that criss-cross the site at different levels. The laneways are lined with shops, cafes and bars, celebrating Sydney as a unique destination.
Muir Livingstone, Sydney Studio Lead, Foster + Partners, added: “It has been a great honour to work on such a prestigious site at the heart of the city. The tower’s occupants will work in flexible, state-of-the-art office spaces, with direct access to some of Sydney’s best new amenities and great views of the harbour.”
