Aurora Place

ABN Amro Tower (Aurora Place)
General information
Type	Commercial skyscraper
Location	Central Business District, Sydney, Australia
Construction started	1997
Completed	2000
Height	218m
Technical details
Floor count	41
Floor area	123 m
Design and construction
Architect	Renzo Piano Building Workshop in association with Innovarchi Architects, Sydney and Lend Lease Design Group (TSG)
Awards and prizes	2002 Property Council of Australia Rider Hunt Award

Aurora Place is the common name of Renzo Piano's award-winning office tower and residential block on Macquarie Street in Sydney, Australia. Its official name is the RBS Tower building. The 41-storey structure is 218 m high to the top of the spire and 188 m to the roof.

The building has an unusual geometric shape where not one panel is parallel to any grid. The east façade bulges out slightly from its base, reaching its maximum width at the top floors. The curved and twisted shape of east façade is aimed to correspond spatially with Sydney Opera House and to represent the sublime marine environment of the harbour. The exterior glass curtain-wall extends beyond the main frame, creating an illusion of its independence. The steel spire attached to the north facade is 75 m in length.

History

The building was built on the site of the former NSW Government Office Block by Bovis Lend Lease. The assumptions of a planned tower were first presented to the Central Sydney Planning Committee in 1996, when three main architects: Mark Carroll, Shunji Ishida and Renzo Piano put forward the innovative project. The building was sold in January 2001 for $485 million. Aurora Place was the winner of prestigious 2002 Property Council of Australia Rider Hunt Award, handled out for technical and financial qualities. On 2 June 2009, French urban climber Alain Robert scaled this building in protest against climate change.

Aurora Place from Macquarie Street

Construction materials

Materials that are used for this building were unique compared to its neighbours, Chifley Tower [Kohn, Pederson Fox architects, 1988] and Governor Phillip Tower [Denton, Corker Marshall architects, 1994]. The façade which makes up the primary component of the building is the milky white fritted glass which has been laminated. The aesthetics of the material gives a visual metaphor of a sail. It is inspired by the tiling of the Sydney Opera House, which is 800 meters (less than half a mile) to the north. Terracotta tiles makes up much of the lower section of the building to contrast the white dominated glass cladding. It also reconciles the orange-clad lobby and the residential complex.

Tenants

An associate of Mulpha Australia - a property owning company that owns the private exclusive Hayman Island in the Great Barrier Reef and the nearby Intercontinental Sydney, lives in an unknown apartment in Aurora Place.

International law firm, Jones Day are tenants of the 41st level.

See also

• Skyscrapers in Sydney
• List of tallest buildings in Australia

References

• See the Emporis Building Fact Sheet for more information.

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons

• SAW, Architect led tours of Aurora Place