Regent Place

Located on the main George Street axis, opposite St Andrew’s Cathedral and close to the Town Hall, the site had been vacant since the old Regent Theatre was demolished in 1989. The strategic importance of this location presented one of the key challenges for the project – the City had very specific objectives regarding the massing and the floorplate for the towers, and the practice chose to develop a scheme that matched these requirements exactly. Bordering Chinatown and the Central Business District, the area had been in need of some regeneration. Regent Place has therefore had a significant impact. By introducing mixed-use and bringing in 1000 residents, the development has contributed to the animation of this urban quarter. Equally, Regent Place has changed the previously low-rise nature of the site by creating a high rise precedent – initiating the construction of a number of further towers.

The development consists of two towers floating above a 5-storey sandstone podium that contains shops, commercial and leisure spaces. Key design objectives have been to integrate the design of the development’s base at street level and to simultaneously establish a successful relationship to the existing historic buildings located around the site. The two towers become increasingly transparent as they rise into the sky and provide a point of reference for the Central Sydney skyline.

The design concept for Lumière Residences explored the idea of an internal loggia rather than a balcony, to preserve the flush and seamless appearance of the building – so that it would match its commercial neighbours. The loggias have folding screen doors and sliding windows with dark glazing. Opaque from the exterior but highly transparent from inside, the glazing was finely tuned to meet this specific requirement. The main 48-storey tower consists of a cluster of eight tall, slender volumes supported by a central core. This will provide high standard private residential apartments. The second 33 -storey tower houses serviced apartments and recreational spaces. Penetration of daylight right into the heart of the development has been a major influence on the configuration of the scheme. The base is divided into a series of building blocks that open up onto internal glazed routes that provide a network of through-site links that reference the traditional Sydney top-lit arcades.



Client: Greencliff (CPL) Developments Pty Ltd
Consultants: Taylor Thompson Whitting / Robert Bird, Rider Hunt Sydney Pty Ltd, Connell Mott MacDonald , Connnell Mott MacDonald , Warren Smith and Partners