Just a few photos I snapped of one of Sydney's newest skyscrapers - Westpac World HQ

You'll be amazed at how splendid this tower really is. :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Fabian/Old%20Stuff/P4218034.jpg

It's famous weather beacon

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Fabian/Old%20Stuff/P4218033.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Fabian/Old%20Stuff/P4218018.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Fabian/Old%20Stuff/P4218014.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Fabian/Old%20Stuff/P4218017.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Fabian/Old%20Stuff/P4218019.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Fabian/Old%20Stuff/P4218020.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Fabian/Old%20Stuff/P4218023.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Fabian/Old%20Stuff/P4218021.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Fabian/Old%20Stuff/P4218037.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Fabian/Old%20Stuff/P4218040.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Fabian/Old%20Stuff/P4218045.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Fabian/Old%20Stuff/P4218048.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Fabian/Old%20Stuff/P4218049.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Fabian/Old%20Stuff/P4218050.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Fabian/Old%20Stuff/P4218051.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Fabian/Old%20Stuff/P4218052.jpg

yes its a great building fab, you just have to try to convince miliux and anton.lol
. its massive,(80m wide x 65m deep) , well shaped. double the height limit for its site.cant ask for anymore. such a fine addition to this western part of CBD.
especially at night with its unique beacon!!

one of australia's largest office towers.
some i took
http://img285.imageshack.us/img285/1058/00003122xu.jpg

its allright, nothing special tho

It's like 3 slab buildings in one!

Nice photos though.

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Top photos of one of Sydney's most classiest buildings! Well Done! :dj:

Love the 5th pic with the sticky outy bit! Don't know what its called but its great! Brilliant building!

I like it alot.
Not Deutsche Bank tower standard though. Now that's a f*cken classic modern office tower !

Too little and too much going on at the same time that contradict each other, there trying to do something and failing, to the point where im asking why?

It's ok and good for a monument to capitalism but not much more.

^why? i could fill a page to tell you how winning design was chosen! have you walked around Westpac? you have to realise its size.
some finer points
#the site could hold 80,000sqm of space thus a big building was required but not to breach height limit.
# the scheme adopted was 2 towers (25storey Sussex st tower) and (35storey kent st tower).
#both with large floor plates wwere joined with central service core. lower floors are massive! 4000sqm and upper floors range from 2000-3000sqm.
the height limit along sussex at is 100m and kent 150m.
the stepped forecourt is well done with covered eaterys and grassed area.
#the roof topped with a 30m weather beacon unique to Australia!- now a landmark on skyline, especially with barometre bandings.

#both with large floor plates wwere joined with central service core. lower floors are massive! 4000sqm and upper floors range from 2000-3000sqm.

I was going to ask about the size of the floorplates. Are they the largest for an office tower in Oz?

good building.... but WORLD HQ... thats a bit rich isnt it... what countries does wespac operate in.... australia... vietnam and..........???

Love the 5th pic with the sticky outy bit! Don't know what its called but its great! Brilliant building!A trapezoid-shaped podium. But sticky out bit is fine....:|

Great pics Fabian.

good building.... but WORLD HQ... thats a bit rich isnt it... what countries does wespac operate in.... australia... vietnam and..........???

NZ :yes:

I was going to ask about the size of the floorplates. Are they the largest for an office tower in Oz?

yeah i did a thread on this bay a while back. The floor plates at lower levels are 4000sqm and tower has 3000sqm and upper levels down to 2000sqm.
77,000sqm is alot for a 30 level building. Not only is it widest in Australia (80m) but also deepest at (65m).its a fat boy alright.

this pic shows the site for Barangaroo and also shows how good Westpac looks in its location
http://www.realestate.com.au/objects/props/7867/103437867bl1157939952.jpg

I must say I don't like that weather beacon. They could of made it a little nice? Lol its like a fat spire for a fat building :tongue2:

weather beacon is best bit!

from THH roof today
http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/3363/0000723hv4.jpg

Love that skyscraper canyon!

and what other city has an elevated highway running through a skyscraper canyon? :P

Hmmm in Boston the Central Artery (officially the John F. Fitzgerald Expressway) was an elevated highway that ran through the middle of the CBD. But the city hated it, saw it as uban blight as it divided the city and so they spent nearly $15 billion to bury the thing. It was an engineering nightmare that took over a decade to complete.

^^i was comparing australian cities

however i can see your relevance in light of the cahill expressway. essentially one of the most frequented shorelines in sydney, that elevated monstrosity prevents the circular quay area from becoming something of a stunning esplanade

http://static.flickr.com/99/283563043_12c45d96a0_o.jpg

Here's one i took sometime ago - it's been posted before but i kinda like this shot (which is quite ironic considering how much this building bugs me). Maybe because this view reminds me a bit of Foster's Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank building in Hong Kong which would have to be one of the world's greatest skyscrapers - certainly one of my favourites.

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/2548/westpacnorthwebds6.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Great looking building IMO.

westypac looking good
http://static.flickr.com/86/215001596_0f811a5929_b.jpg

I went past it a few weeks ago, and are those laser lights on the spire?

I really like this building. I like this bit the best:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v28/Fabian/Old%20Stuff/P4218017.jpg

haha, laser lights.. Well, I'd actually like to know how to "read" those lights. I see them at night, is a barometer? What exactly do they "show"???

It's funny only people on the inside (those working at Westpac) know what they mean but can't see the barometer, and your average Joe who can see it doesn't have a clue.Whilst I don't like it from all angles and think the barometer's pointless for the reason stated above it's not that bad a building, and the cladding's quite impressive.

westpac are going to put out a flyer about the barometer soon.

WE ALREADY have goal posts, an electric razor and a couple of hypodermic needles. But now Sydney's skyline boasts a giant barometer as well.

Westpac Bank has chosen to top its new $627 million Kent Street headquarters, Westpac Place, with a giant white glass barometer.

As the pressure rises, eight horizontal red lines on the north and south sides of the "architectural roof feature" light up.

The higher the pressure, the more lines appear and when the pressure goes up or down, the lights pulse on and off.

^^i was comparing australian cities

however i can see your relevance in light of the cahill expressway. essentially one of the most frequented shorelines in sydney, that elevated monstrosity prevents the circular quay area from becoming something of a stunning esplanade

Some of us love the Cahill Expressway!

I went past it a few weeks ago, and are those laser lights on the spire?

They are neon or LED most certainly not laser.

Ok cool, thanks.

good building.... but WORLD HQ... thats a bit rich isnt it... what countries does wespac operate in.... australia... vietnam and..........???

Westpac currently operates in:

USA (New York)
England (London)
Singapore
Hong Kong
China (Beijing)
Indonesia
New Zealand
Fiji
Cook Islands
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tonga
Vanuatu

Reminds me a lot of Brisbane Square (bar BSq's coloured boxes). I really like it, its a bit more cluttered in its appearance but still really impressive. It 'exudes' quality.

I really like this building. And yeah, it reminds me of Brisbane Square to a certain extent. The big black box at the bottem is certainly my favourite feature of the building.

WE ALREADY have goal posts, an electric razor and a couple of hypodermic needles. But now Sydney's skyline boasts a giant barometer as well.

^^The goal posts are Deutsch Bank, but what's the electric razor?

LOL, the electric razor is the proposed new 188m John Boyd Tower on Castlereagh St

http://static.flickr.com/116/316369636_36a0207cf9_b.jpg

Westpac currently operates in:

USA (New York)
England (London)
Singapore
Hong Kong
China (Beijing)
Indonesia
New Zealand
Fiji
Cook Islands
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tonga
Vanuatu

I think it depends how you mean 'operates'. I can just picture the last 7 places youve written. Probally a 1 room shack on the beach :)

Does it have more floor space than Grosvenor Place???

Does it have more floor space than Grosvenor Place???

No. Grosvenor Place has 88 000 sq/m compared to 76 000 sq/m in this building.

Grosvenor place has 44 levels, Westpac has 30.

Westpac currently operates in:

USA (New York)
England (London)
Singapore
Hong Kong
China (Beijing)
Indonesia
New Zealand
Fiji
Cook Islands
Papua New Guinea
Samoa
Solomon Islands
Tonga
Vanuatu

They actually operate as a Financial Services provider in the UK and are not based in London, but in Wales' capital city, Cardiff.

Westpac Institutional Bank is a division of Westpac Banking Corporation, a company registered in New South Wales in Australia under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). Westpac is authorised and regulated in the United Kingdom by the Financial Services Authority and is registered at Cardiff in the United Kingdom as Branch No. BR 106. Westpac operates in the United States of America as a federally chartered branch, regulated by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

I don't dig it. Looks really American early 90s or something.

Two recent shots from Pyrmont

http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/6435/dscf0447w.jpg

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/9744/dscf0467a.jpg

^^
Looks great from that angle. :cheers:

An incredibly bland building if ever there was one.

Let's move on, shall we?

Macquarie HQ looks way hot there.
At least it doesnt have too much to compete with.

It will soon have lots of competition when the towers at Barangaroo start to rise :)

Looks like a good building to photograph.

One of the best in recent times: a sort of sculptural Modernism - definitely not bland!

I would've loved to have seen vertical stripes ( rather than the horizontal ) as it's more "slimming".

I would've loved to have seen vertical stripes ( rather than the horizontal ) as it's more "slimming".

I like it better with horizontal stripes anyway. It looks bolder this way and still makes it seem quite tall.