Clear daytime view from Circular Quay: the granite tower and its crown of fins against a blue sky, with lower buildings in the foreground.

Governor Phillip Tower

1 Farrer Place, Sydney

Denton Corker Marshall. 1990 to 1993. Contemporary.

Size
227 m, or 254 m to the tip of the mast. 54 floors above ground
Material
Polished grey granite, stainless steel fins, a sandstone podium
Status
Offices

The first Government House stood on this block from 1788 until it was demolished in 1845 to 1846, and excavation of its remains began in 1983. The development that followed is more than the tower. It includes the shorter Governor Macquarie Tower to the south, the Museum of Sydney, also by Denton Corker Marshall, and a plaza over the foundations, which are on the National Heritage List. Janet Laurence and Fiona Foley collaborated on the plaza, which won the Lloyd Rees Award for Urban Design in 1995.

The tower has a polished granite shaft on a four-level sandstone podium, with the shaft held up ten floors above the street on zinc-plated transfer beams. The top is a cap of slender stainless steel fins. It has the nickname the milk crate. Governor Macquarie Tower, next door, uses the same materials without the crown.

In 1994 the tower won the Sir John Sulman Medal and the Royal Australian Institute of Architects’ national award for commercial architecture.

Sources

  1. Governor Phillip Tower, Wikipedia
  2. Governor Phillip Tower, Denton Corker Marshall
  3. Governor Phillip Tower & Governor Macquarie Tower, JPW
  4. Governor Phillip Tower, Skyscraper Center, CTBUH
  5. Museum of Sydney, Wikipedia