Monday 5 November 2018

SERIES: The Evolution of the Citigroup Centre - Park Tower Scheme II (1994)


The citation is featured below.

Last week, I looked at the Park Tower proposal from 1990 for the former site of Waltons. The start of the 1990s saw Sydney (and Australia) enter the "recession that we had to have". Business confidence had been dampened reducing demand for office space. In addition, the property market had collapsed while the city experienced an oversupply in office space as existing projects were completed.

The excavated site from 1987 would spend most of the decade laying dormant and had become one of the most prominent of the 22 or so building sites that lay vacant across the city.

By the middle of the decade, Australia had slipped out of recession.

In 1994, Kumagai Gumi and Sogo unveiled their latest proposal. I don't have details about the number of floors but I would believe it would around 48 levels, consistent with their 1990 scheme but also for the eventual 2 Park Street tower that we see today.

It is this scheme that would form the basis for the tower that would eventually be built, noting the height, setbacks at the top of the tower but also the addition of two spires; which would be reduced to one in the final approved scheme

The artist's impressions were from an article in The Daily Telegraph Mirror that was published in April 1994.



Source: Jones, M. 1994. 'New Sydney to be 'living work of art'. The Daily Telegraph Mirror, April 19: 5.

The complex was proposed to be built in two stages with the retail podium in stage one including a Sogo Department store with the office tower to be built later.

By September, there was speculation that commencement of construction of the department store would commence.


Source: Reeves. 1994. "Department store set to fill eyesore hole". The Sydney Morning Herald, September 20: 9.

But despite the plans, the site would remain dormant for longer. Next week, we will see the light emerge when I post about the tower we see today and the accompanying Galeries Victoria.

Previous Schemes

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