20 Martin Place involved Crone completely reconstructing an out-dated, 20-storey, 1970s office building, transforming it into a signature building in the heart of Sydney’s CBD.

The brief was to design a new office tower on an inner-city site so to outwit a restrictive LEP stipulating a much smaller envelope for a new build, Crone retained and re-skinned the existing building’s steel structure.  We then relocated the core and extended the floor plate to the north, adding 160sqm of NLA to the existing plate. A bespoke, high-performing and environmentally responsive glass facade − designed in collaboration with James Carpenter Design Associates − uses dichroic glass to create a beautifully luminous face to Martin Place while contributing to the building’s efficiency, achieving a 6-Star Green Star and 5-Star Nabers energy rating. The ground floor was then redesigned to enhance and activate pedestrian amenity.

The project has now garnered ‘World Leadership’ status as a green building with a total score of 77 points awarded by the Green Building Council of Australia during Round 1 submission – a rare occurrence.