Parkline Place is designed by internationally renowned architects, Foster & Partners. We talked to Muir Livingstone about the inspiration and approach behind this distinctive building that encapsulates global benchmarks in sustainable design, smart technology and workplace experience. Read part 1 of the interview here.
Q) Parkline Place has been described as a landmark building – what makes this a landmark?
Parkline Place is strategically located at the junction of the city’s southern CBD and the Midtown retail precinct. It acts as a distinctive marker for the eastern gateway to the city.
Q) What are the top 3-5 aspects of the building design you would point out to a visitor?
The project is an Integrated Station Development and hardwired into the critical infrastructure of Sydney. A building in a well-connected location, over a metro station – this is one of the most impactful sustainability moves you can make as an architect.
The project is very much of its place and a direct response to its surrounding environment. It is also a culmination of many decades of Foster + Partners’ work on the office tower typology.
Parkline Place is crafted and bespoke. From the unique façade to the end grain flooring in the sky lobby, and the carefully considered ‘fifth elevation’ of the roof plane, the design is driven by an attention to detail.
Q) How does the design of Parkline Place ensure it fits into its location but also sets the future tone of the eastern gateway and the city?
Parkline Place engages with its context, with a warm, natural palette of materials and soft, curvaceous geometry.
At the lower levels its transparency activates Park Street over multiple levels, while the definition and solidity of form (when viewed obliquely) is required for this gateway site.
The building will bring a new level of craftmanship to this area of Sydney, setting a benchmark for the redevelopment of this part of the CBD.
Q) What office trends are emerging globally, and how does Parkline Place respond to these needs and aspirations?
Clients and developers require a sustainable building that meets the requirements of their tenants – a building that is not just fit-for-purpose now but looks to future requirements to avoid becoming a stranded asset.
Our clients are looking for flexibility, a floorplate that can be readily sub-divided and can become a hub over multiple levels.
A workplace that draws people back to the city to work after the challenges of recent years is of paramount importance. This workplace needs to be well connected and convenient, it must have first-class amenities and contribute to a general sense of ‘wellness’ – a connection to the outdoors, greenery, nature. This is the ambition for Parkline Place.
Q) What other well-known buildings has Foster + Partners designed?
There are many, but probably the most well known include:
- Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank
- British Museum Great Court
- The Gherkin (30 St Mary Axe)
- Wembley Stadium
- Apple Campus, Cupertino, California
Q) What will or what do you want people to feel, see or experience when they walk through the entrance doors of Parkline Place?
We hope that people will appreciate the sense of space. You will have left behind a busy street and arrived in a 17-metre-tall entrance lobby, with cascading escalators and glimpses of the levels above. Airy cafés and eateries provide areas for meetings and social engagements.
Lobby artworks will make full use of the height of the lobby on the ground floor and animate the building. A richly textured sandstone wall flanks the escalators, as visitors ascend to the upper levels.
Look out for Part 2 of Muir’s interview about design, coming soon.