Foster+Partners has created a 39-story skyscraper, called Pitt Street OSD, that will be built above the Pitt Street metro station it is developing in central Sydney, Australia. The project is a collaboration with Cox Architecture and Bates Smart and is part of Australia’s biggest public transport project the Sydney Metro. The new building “creates a vibrant mixed-use hub offering flexible space with an elevated lobby and retail plaza in the heart of Sydney’s retail, dining, and entertainment precinct”.
Located on the corner of Park and Pitt, above the northern entrance to Pitt Street Station, the new skyscraper responds to the surrounding context in a contemporary form with its sandstone and bronze color palette. Reflecting Sydney’s global city status, the project “will reinforce and frame one of the key gateways to the city with a design that celebrates the rich architectural heritage of the precinct and heralds the future of Sydney’s next-generation midtown”.
“The Pitt Street north design is inspired by its unique park-side CBD context, bringing together office, transport, retail and public places in a coherent form,” explained Foster + Partners.
Daylight reaches the station plaza concourse through a glass facade during the day. The ground floor is topped by three vertical blocks complete with the same curved glazing on each corner. A vertical recess in the facade continues seamlessly through the full height of the building and is centered directly on the station entrance veil. The project features “a podium level whose datum follows the building heights of the two listed buildings adjacent to the site”. Facing south, the primary elevation has very little solar exposure and minimal vertical sunshades, while on the east and west elevations, the glazed area is substantially reduced to reduce heat gain with an array of solid and transparent horizontal ribbons that help manage the high sun.