A celebrated Sydney icon, years in the making

A green edge

One Central Park is designed to provide a high-tech urban lifestyle in harmony with nature. The residential towers are built around Chippendale Green comprising more than 6,400 square metres of new parks and public spaces. Vertical gardens by artist and botanist Patrick Blanc wrap the east and north facades of both towers with 38,000 Indigenous and exotic plants, and 250 species of Australian flowers and plants which change with the seasons. 

Detailed planning was undertaken to consider all aspects of the planting process. We calculated how many plants could be completed per day and applied swing stage set ups to manage the installation. We installed the sky gardens through a custom scaffolding system that safely addressed height and wind factors, comprising cantilevered, hanging and a swinging stage and hoisted platform. Some species of plants were sensitive to construction dust and low light, so we arranged just-in-time delivery no more than 48 hours before scheduled installation. 

Setting a benchmark – the Heliostat 

One Central Park’s 100-tonne heliostat is a masterful combination of architecture, construction, sustainability and public art. There are sun-tracking heliostat mirrors mounted on a 33-metre cantilever directing sunlight down into the podium creating abundant natural light. At night, the mirrors display a series of 2,880 programmable and coloured LED lights known as Sea Mirror, an artistic installation by French lighting designer, Yann Kersale. 

The heliostat represented a never-before-attempted construction challenge. We worked closely with the industrial designer and our client team to safely and meticulously design the installation process. After three years of planning, we lifted the heliostat into place using the largest capacity tower crane available in the world at the time, usually only seen in the mining sector.

Iconic construction

Delivering a ground-breaking project, with multiple high-rises in a CBD location, presented a number of logistical challenges. We developed staged planning for site-wide roads and infrastructure to maintain existing access roads for trucks and materials. Key sub-contractors participated closely in our design and procurement processes, which supported the interface needed for the subsequent precinct stage under development. To ensure the high-specification vision was fully realised, we focused on key trades in areas like form working, services and joinery. We piloted new safety systems to manage personnel activity on site and conducted rigorous sampling and prototyping of multiple materials of the buildings.