Located on a highly visible corner in the heart of Sydney’s luxury retail and legal precinct this project involves the re-cladding of an existing 14-storey commercial building. Wrapping the building in a new insulated glass facade addressed the existing facades leaks and poor thermal performance while repositioning the building to reflect of its high profile retail tenants. 

The new glass façade unifies the irregularity of the existing facade’s disparate materials. It steps in and out to accommodate existing concrete walls while a series of frameless vertical glass fins provide a consistent alignment and provide depth, shadow and texture across the façade. 

The modest budget of $5.5M only allowed for a very cost effective and utilitarian design solution. However by developing an innovative methodology for over-cladding the existing facade tenants were able to remain within the building during construction. This eliminated their relocation and fitout replacement costs allowing the entire budget to be allocated to the new facade. 

The reuse of the structural elements of the existing façade system reduced the materials required for construction and the amount of waste to be taken off site while the new glazing skin substantially improve thermal performance and thereby reduced the building’s energy consumption.