Street-corner view of the whole building: buff terracotta, rising piers, setbacks and the Grace canopy sign at street level. Overcast, neutral light. Portrait format.

Grace Building

77-79 York Street, Sydney

Morrow & Gordon. 1928 to 1930. Art Deco.

Size
64 m, 12 floors
Material
Concrete frame in cream glazed terracotta, picked out in green
Status
State Heritage Register, 1999. Now The Grace Hotel

The Grace Bros department-store family bought this corner in 1926 and modelled their showpiece on Chicago’s Tribune Tower. Their letterhead gave the address as the Harbour Bridge Highway, in the hope that York Street would become a great shopping street. The Army requisitioned it in 1942 and United States Army services used it until 1943. The Commonwealth kept it for decades after. The heritage listing calls it Sydney’s finest skyscraper Gothic. Its piers run unbroken from the second floor to the parapet, the tower steps back as it rises, and the corner crown carries flying buttresses, pointed windows and quatrefoils.

Read about Art Deco in Sydney

Sources

  1. The history of the Grace Building, Sydney (Ross, 2024), John W. Ross, hosted on shazbeige.com
  2. Grace Building, Sydney, Wikipedia
  3. Grace Building, State Library of NSW
  4. Grace Building, Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat