The recently completed 89,000 sqm Quay Quarter Tower (QQT) is a once-in-a-generation project – one that, when it was won in 2014, seemed almost far-fetched. Located on the edge of Sydney’s bustling Circular Quay, the tower “upcycles” the existing AMP Centre tower. Built only in 1976, the original AMP Centre was reaching the end of its usable lifespan. Still, rather than simply tear it down and start over, the project team set out to reach an ambitious goal: to reuse as much of the existing building and set a lofty new standard for what is possible for adaptive reuse in architecture.

Today, that goal has been achieved. QQT retains over 65% of the original structure (beams, columns, and slabs) and 95% of the original core, resulting in an embodied carbon saving of 7.3 million kilograms (the equivalent of 35,000 flights between Sydney and Melbourne).

The 206-metre, 49-storey tower is composed of five stacked and shifted volumes; the lower floors face the bustling Younge Street and Harbour Bridge, and skew eastwards as they climb to frame panoramic views onto the Royal Botanic Gardens and the Sydney Opera House. The twisting composition not only animates the skyline but allows the tower to fit within the site’s shade envelope requirements despite grafting on more than 45,000 sqm of new floor space.

QQT was developed around a “vertical village” concept, designed from both the inside out and the outside in and with the user experience top of mind. And with 10,000 people working in and passing through the structure each day, it’s no small scale to account for. Each of the tower’s five volumes is a hub unto itself, floors threaded together by a spiral stair and arranged around stacked atria that bring daylight deep into the 2,000 sqm floor plates.

For tenants who need to further subdivide the floors, a dismantlable and portable (small enough to fit into the building’s lifts) floorplate can be installed within the atrium to accommodate changing spatial needs. Linked to the atrium at the base of each block are exterior terraces, allowing workers access to the outdoors without requiring them to return to the ground level and exit the building.

In many highrises, the typical tower-on-podium design approach all but eliminates street-level presence and approachability – deadening towers and city centers alike. QQT works against this paradigm, embedding both a lobby and a market hall in its sloping site to create an open, multilevel public podium that welcomes all.

3XN’s design for QQT was chosen as the winner of a two-stage, international, design excellence competition; following the competition win, 3XN and client AMP Capital selected BVN as the Executive Architect for the project approval process and the Design Development/Detailed Design phase. During Construction, BVN was novated to the contractor, Multiplex, to complete documentation while 3XN remained client-side to oversee the design and review construction development. Additional project partners include ASPECT Studios (Landscape Architects), Tom Dixon DRS (Lobby and Market Hall interiors), and Olafur Eliasson, whose studio contributed to the public artwork at the tower’s base.