Chifley Tower is a 53-storey

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall high-rise bui ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. It was designed by

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

-based

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs, and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

s Travis McEwen and Kohn Pedersen Fox, with John Rayner as project architect. At a height of 244 metres (801 feet), Chifley Tower was the tallest building in Sydney from 1992 to 2019. It was surpassed in height by Crown Sydney (271 metres) in 2020 along with the

Salesforce Tower Salesforce Tower, formerly known as Transbay Tower, is a 61-story supertall skyscraper at 415 Mission Street, between First and Fremont Street, in the South of Market, San Francisco, South of Market district of downtown San Francisco. Its main ...

(263 metres) and One Sydney Harbour (247 metres) in 2022.

Site history

Chifley Tower is built on an irregularly shaped plot. Due to the organic development of Sydney's street pattern, the streets that run north from this area form a skewed grid that is aligned differently to the streets that run south from this area, which form another skewed grid. The cross streets immediately north and south of the site (Bent and Hunter), on the other hand, follow meandering alignments that do not align with these skewed grids. At the southwestern corner of the plot, Elizabeth Street terminates at Hunter Street while, a short distance to the east, Phillip Street crosses Hunter Street and continues north to Circular Quay. Elizabeth Street became a major artery, running almost straight from Hunter Street in the north, past

Central Station Central stations or central railway stations emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century as railway stations that had initially been built on the edge of city centres were enveloped by urban expansion and became an integral part of the ...

through to Waterloo, while Phillip Street runs south from this junction for only two blocks before it is terminated by King Street and St James' Church. As a result, termination of Elizabeth Street at Hunter Street was felt to be unsatisfactory, and from the early 20th century various plans were devised to modernise this junction. The City of Sydney Council adopted a plan to create a

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

ian Haussmannian-style geometric plaza, through which Elizabeth Street would connect with the northern section of Phillip Street and form a thoroughfare to Circular Quay.Dictionary of Sydney – Chifley Square
/ref> Land resumptions to create this square continued for many years. In 1957, Qantas House was completed to the northwest of the junction, with a curved frontage conforming to the planned plaza, named "Chifley Square". However, in 1962, the Commonwealth Centre, owned by the

Australian federal government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national Executive (government), executive government of Australia, a federalism, federal Parliamentary system, parliamentary con ...

, was completed on the site of today's Chifley Tower complex, and did not align with the planned plaza. Eventually it was demolished in the 1980s, and the Chifley Tower complex was built in its place. The podium building has a curved facade to the southwest which mirrors that of Qantas House and completes the semicircular curve of the planned square. The southwestern corner of the plot became a pedestrian plaza, with a giant, two-dimensional sculpture of Ben Chifley, after whom the square is named. The building was originally named Bond Tower, after Alan Bond. After Bond's bankruptcy, the building was acquired by

Kumagai Gumi is a Japanese construction company founded in Fukui, Fukui Prefecture, Japan. The company still has registered headquarters in Fukui, but the actual head office is located in Shinjuku, Tokyo. History Santaro Kumagai, the company's founder, be ...

, and in 1993 was renamed Chifley Tower, after the square. The retail arcade located in the podium building is named "Chifley Plaza".

Features

Located at 2 Chifley Square, its cross streets are Hunter, Philip and Bent Streets with the main entry being on Phillip Street. Due to its prominent location at the peak in the north-east CBD, the Tower has broad harbour views from its 42 storeys. The tower is used primarily for commercial use, mostly financial institutions, law firms and corporations. Current tenants include UBS,

Blackrock BlackRock, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multinational investment company. Founded in 1988, initially as an enterprise risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager ...

, Servcorp, Hana Financial Group and

Bank of Queensland The Bank of Queensland (BOQ), formerly known as the Brisbane Permanent Benefit Building and Investment Society (BPBBIS) between 1874–1970, is an Australian retail bank with headquarters in Brisbane, Queensland. The bank is one of the oldest fi ...

. A midrise podium building surrounds the tower. Retail arcades are located on the lower levels, while the upper levels of the podium building are used as commercial offices (for most of the building's history, as

trading floor Open outcry is a method of communication between professionals on a stock exchange or futures exchange, typically on a trading floor. It involves shouting and the use of hand signals to transfer information primarily about buy and sell orde ...

s for a succession of

investment bank Investment is traditionally defined as the "commitment of resources into something expected to gain value over time". If an investment involves money, then it can be defined as a "commitment of money to receive more money later". From a broade ...

s). The entrance foyer for the retail arcades is located on the southwestern corner of the building, facing Chifley Square. A

lightning rod A lightning rod or lightning conductor (British English) is a metal rod mounted on a structure and intended to protect the structure from a lightning strike. If lightning hits the structure, it is most likely to strike the rod and be conducted ...

was added in 2000, extending its original height from to . To stop the tower from moving in the wind a giant steel pendulum weighing is held from eight wires near the rooftop. The tower is named after former Australian Prime Minister

Ben Chifley Joseph Benedict Chifley (; 22 September 1885 – 13 June 1951) was an Australian politician and train driver who served as the 16th prime minister of Australia from 1945 to 1949. He held office as the leader of the Labor Party (ALP), and was n ...

. At one time

All Nippon Airways (ANA) is a Japanese airline headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. ANA operates services to both domestic and international destinations and is Japan's largest airline, ahead of its main rival flag carrier Japan Airlines. the airline has approximate ...

operated a sales office on Level 32.ANA Directory

Archive
.

. 1998. Retrieved on 9 July 2016. "Sydney Level 32, The Chifley Tower 2 Chifley Square, Sydney N.S.W. 2000, Australia"

References

External links

* CC-By-SA">Creative_Commons_license.html" ;"title="/nowiki>Creative Commons license">CC-By-SA/nowiki> {{Sydney landmarks Buildings and structures in Sydney Office buildings completed in 1992 Skyscraper office buildings in Sydney Kohn Pedersen Fox buildings Sydney central business district Postmodern architecture in Australia

Site history

Features

See also

References

External links