Designing services for Sydney’s tallest residential building

WSP were involved in the early design of the documentation of the Greenland Tower up to 2015 which entailed rigorous regulatory requirements and heritage challenges for Sydney’s tallest residential tower.

Location

Sydney, Australia

Client

Greenland Group

Architect

BVN Architecture and Woods Bagot

Project Value

AU $600 million

Project Status

Completed

Awards

CTBUH 2022 Award of Excellence – Construction Award

Now that it is completed, Greenland Centre is the highest residential tower on the Sydney skyline, comprising 480 luxury apartments over 67 levels and 11 levels of car parking and WSP were proud to be involved in the early onset of this project.

Located on the corner of Bathurst and Pitt Streets in Sydney’s central business district, Greenland Centre is the first building of its height in Sydney to graft a completely new structure on top of an existing tall tower.

The development consists of two distinct buildings with heritage significance – one of them a tall tower, onto which the new tower is grafted. The other is the heritage-listed Water Board building, which was converted into a boutique hotel known as the Primus Hotel. The building also has unique Sydney balconies with a façade of modulating angled glass to compensate for the wind levels at height. This creates winter gardens that can be used all year round.

Performance and value

WSP provided fully integrated building services for the entire project up to the original tender date in 2015. This involved transforming an existing office building so that it is fit for residential use which created unique challenges. WSP had to implement numerous strategies to guarantee adherence to achieve high quality for indoor environment quality, while ensuring no compromise on aesthetic design.

The team created a fire engineering solution that eliminated the stair pressurisation system from the building, replacing it with strategic lobby smoke ventilation. This reduced the riser space required and provided significant capital costs savings for mechanical plant.

To achieve acoustic separation requirements in accordance with the Building Code of Australia, our team increased performance of existing floors and flanking around built elements. In doing so, we addressed many of the challenges of converting former office space into residential space.

Tangible benefits

Through detailed analysis, innovative design and close consultation with the architect and façade engineer, we successfully adhered to the rigorous regulatory requirements for the project and still delivered on budget.

The tower was completed in 2021.

Height (in storeys)

66