Project Details

The Challenge

Darling Park, a complex of office towers, was certainly not a development driven by an environmental agenda, yet one of the buildings has recently achieved a Building Greenhouse Rating (BGR) of four stars, meaning that its energy performance is in the top nine percent of total office floor area in NSW. What actually drove the Darling Park development was the challenge of creating 'prestige' office accomodation in what, at the time of its inception (the late 1980s) was regarded as a somewhat marginal CBD location. The ideas of 'quality' upon which its design and specification were based, have resulted in some environmental benefits, but also some significant costs, as this case study will make clear. Darling Park comprises 3 office towers (one yet to be built), public landscaped space and waterfront restaurant / entertainment area. This study is mainly focused on Tower 1, the first to be built and occupied.

Darling Park Development

Development type: 3 office towers (one yet to be built), public landscaped space, waterfront restaurant / entertainment area.

Site area: 3.5 hectares.

Completion: Stage I 1993, Stage II 1999.

Tower 1

Building type: Office tower

Building area: 51,203m2 of Net Lettable Area (NLA) excluding retail and car parking, 10,000m2 of civic and common space including landscaped gardens.

Number of occupants: 2,960 as seven tenancies

Nature of occupancy: Average 90 hours per week, but varies according to tenant with Fairfax operating 24hrs / 7days

Number of storeys: 30 levels (including plant) plus 7 levels of underground parking.

Building address: Darling Park Tower No. 1, 201 Sussex Street, Sydney NSW 2001

Owner: General Property Trust and AMP Henderson Global Investors

Completion: 1993