NEVER BUILT SYDNEY: Catholic Club Office Tower (1988)

This is the last entry in our current series of  "Never Builts".

The Catholic Club sought to redevelop its Castlereagh Street site in the 1980s. In 1988, they teamed with Leda Ltd to design an 18-storey office tower to replace the five-storey building that had occupied the site since 1913. The Catholic Club would secure the first four levels of the building for their new premises, with the remaining levels to be leased as office space by Leda.

   

Peddle Thorp Walker were the architects. The 1913 building was demolished the following year. Like many projects planned at the end of the 1980s in central Sydney, it became a victim of the crash of the property market and recession in the early 1990s.

In 1993, Sydney City Council approved Victoria Towers, which was also proposed by Leda. The change of use from office to residential reflected the state of the Sydney CBD office market, along with changes to planning guidelines that encouraged Sydney CBD residential development.

Related Entry:

Filling the city's holes in the Ground: Victoria Towers (1996)