Sixty Martin Place Development of the Year (PCA NSW) – What does it take?

I remember sitting in Hassell’s boardroom in 2011 discussing Investa and Gwynvill Groups' ambition to achieve a legacy building. The existing single tenanted building, 60 Martin Place, was old and fast approaching the end of its lifecycle, but the property address was on Sydney’s pre-eminent business boulevard, meaning something needed to be done. The building also had the characteristic of being built significantly above Council’s sun access plane, which was a planning control introduced long after the buildings completion, yet gave the site significant latent development potential. Others had told Investa/Gwynvill “you can’t, Council will never allow you to knock down and rebuild above a sun access plane”, I was not yet a Director of Ethos Urban and was still learning off the best when Ethos Urban Director Lesley Bull said ‘why not?’, and from there we were engaged by the owners to work with them and find a planning pathway that delivered upon their ambitious vision. This began a five-year planning process to achieve an LEP amendment, an international design competition and ultimately an approved Stage 2 DA.

The planning process was robust and detailed, and ultimately a showcase of how collaboration can deliver exceptional outcomes.?Multiple visits to Council’s Design Advisory Panel (DAP), solar testing in 10-minute increments across the whole year to demonstrate net benefits on Martin Place, a year long pause while air rights were negotiated with the adjoining St Stephen's Church, resulting in a pivotal agreement that saw a win-win outcome. This agreement brokered by Investa and Gwynvill resulted in floorspace being reallocated to the commercial tower, secured funding for upgrade conservation works to St Stephen's Church and ultimately allowed the airspace above the Church to be developed, for the now famous tower cantilever.

The design excellence competition process proved a success with Investa/Gwynvill appointing a mix of Australian firms with (some international partners) to compete in a Council endorsed design competition, and create value to all stakeholders, owners, tenants, occupants, and importantly the public. The field included the incumbent Hassell; Architectus with PLP Architecture; FJMT; Fitzpatrick and Partners with Tonkin Zulaikha Greer; Johnson Pilton Walker with NBBJ; and Bates Smart with Thomas Phifer and Partners.

With the planning proposal still yet to be determined, Council supported a progressive design competition brief (at the risk of the owners) which permitted architectural exploration zones outside of the LEP amendment permissible planning envelope. An innovative response that I haven’t seen used again and I would encourage it to be allowed in future competitions. These exploration zones facilitated the elegantly arched cantilever which forms a fundamental part of the proposal’s skyline and Instagram worthy benefits – in other words, the cantilever is crucial to the achievement of design excellence (well done Hassell and Enstruct).

With an incredibly tight envelope defined by the draft LEP amendment, there was some cynicism from the industry that the competition would simple be a fa?ade “dress up” competition. However, the results of the design competition yielded wildly differing results within the constraints of the envelope. All this, being a testament to the value of the City’s design excellence process.

Ultimately, Hassell were awarded the winner of the competition, a great accolade for an incumbent Australian architect who had invested so much into the project. This win went against many previous architectural competition outcomes, where the incumbent envelope architect is by no means guaranteed a victory in the design competition.

It was a very bold decision by the co-owners to start construction speculatively. Subsequently major pre commitments followed by well credentialled tenants who were quick to recognise the proposal as a new standard in quality design and an enviable address in a very tough leasing market.

The vision delivery by the co-owners was testament to the Investa leasing teams and the faith of the anchor tenants and early pre-commitments – Norton Rose Fulbright, Mizuho Financial Group, Munich Re, Banco Chambers, Boston Consulting Group. Thomas Geer, HRL Morrison, and well renowned restaurateur Toppi.

With a lot of the planning hard yards done, the Stage 2 DA (and separate DA for demolition) followed quite a usual planning process. However, the usual planning process also included– 13 modification applications; signage strategies; lighting strategies; tenant fit-outs; stratum applications; Sydney Trains approval for links to the adjacent Martin Place station; and the list goes on. All planning processes were run by Ethos Urban with the steady guidance of Savills Project Management and the Investa Development team.

With Lendlease as principal contractor, the construction utilised a sophisticated BIM system and ultimately Digital Twin, which allowed pre-fabrication of building elements, speedy construction timeframes (one floor a week); as well as innovation in technology and sustainability. The building has since achieved a 6 Star Green Star Rating, NABERS 5 Star Energy Rating and has recently been awarded the WELL Core and Shell Pre-certification at the Platinum level. Mark Tait (Group Executive and Head of Development at Investa) told me on one site visit, if you want to know how good a build/builder quality is, have a look at the fire stairs. The detail is a great tell tale sign of quality.

The project’s crowning glories include an impressive civic room at ground level; state of the art end of trip facilities; the beautiful showcasing of St Stephen's Church from the lobby / foyer area; beautiful public art and art curation (Lindy Lee and UAP Urban Art); flexible and useable floorplates that capture amazing views and natural light; sophisticated tenant and building management automation; and new and delightful surprises such as the popularity of Martin Place facing tenancies, which are as sought after as tenancies with the world class Harbour views.

Think about that– 10 years from twinkle in the eye until crowning of PCA NSW development of the year. Committed landowners (Investa and Gwynvill Group); Project architects (Hassell); Builders (Lendlease); Project Managers (Savills); Engineers (Enstruct, NDY and ARUP); Heritage (Graham Brooks and Associates); Town Planners (Ethos Urban) and many many others key contributors and stakeholders. As the saying goes it takes a village to raise a child, and wow 60 Martin Place Sydney truly is a Masterpiece that all stakeholders are very proud to have been involved in! Special mention to Brendan Hoskins who started as an intern on this project with Ethos Urban and made his career to Associate Director on this and other city building projects, and is now one of our pre-eminent CBD experts. Well done to our contacts who appointed Ethos Urban on delivering an impressive project: @Mark Tait, @Shen Chiu @Lara Hutcheson, @Mark Finch (formerly at Investa) and @GwynvillGroup.

It takes a lot to make a great City making project and in my biased opinion, Investa and Gywnvill have easily achieved their legacy building. ?