Central Park is a 51-storey

office tower A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall Tower block, h ...

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

, Western Australia. The building measures from its base at

St Georges Terrace St Georges Terrace (colloquially known as "The Terrace") is the main street in the city of Perth, Western Australia. It runs parallel to the Swan River and forms the major arterial thoroughfare through the central business district. Its ...

to the roof, and to the tip of its communications mast. Upon its completion in 1992, the tower became the tallest building in Perth, and was the fourth-tallest in Australia from then till 2005. It is also currently the sixteenth tallest building in Australia (tied with the Infinity Tower) and the tallest building in the western half of Australia. The approval of the tower was controversial due to the

plot ratio Floor area ratio (FAR) is the ratio of a building's total floor area (gross floor area) to the size of the piece of land upon which it is built. It is often used as one of the regulations in city planning along with the building-to-land ratio. Th ...

concessions made by the

Perth City Council The City of Perth is a local government area and body, within the Perth metropolitan area, which is the capital of Western Australia. The local government is commonly known as Perth City Council. The City covers the Perth city centre and sur ...

to the developers. These concessions enabled the developers to construct a tower more than twice the height which would otherwise be allowable on the site. There was also opposition to the Council's decision to ignore its own town planning experts in allowing a large car park to be constructed underneath the site. Central Park Tower Perth

The building is formed by a composite steel and concrete frame, with various setbacks in its profile, meaning the upper floors are much smaller in area than lower levels. Outrigger trusses at the top of the building and at the various setbacks help to stiffen the building's

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

core against the strong winds prevalent in the area. The base of the building features a small park, for which the tower is named. Central Park Tower 8

History

Department stores

From as early as the 1930s, the site was home to a

Foy & Gibson Foy & Gibson, also known as Foy's and later Cox-Foys, was one of Australia's largest and earliest department store chains. A large range of goods were manufactured and sold by the company including clothing, manchester, leather goods, soft fur ...

department store. The store extended all the way through from

to Hay Street, featured a popular cafeteria and "had great areas of window display with island windows beyond the street frontage". The store changed to a David Jones department store upon it purchasing Foy & Gibson. By the late 1970s, David Jones had withdrawn from the Western Australian market, and the site stood vacant after decades as a landmark of St Georges Terrace. The site was later acquired by Central Park Developments, a joint venture of the Superannuation Board of Western Australia,

Bond Corporation Alan Bond (22 April 1938 – 5 June 2015) was an English-born Australian businessman noted for his high-profile and often corrupt business dealings. These included his central role in the WA Inc scandals of the 1980s; the biggest corporate co ...

and L. R. Connell and Partners, and in 1986 had a value of $20 million.

Planning approval

A planned $150 million redevelopment of the site was announced in October 1985. The plans included a 45-storey office tower, underground car parking, a landscaped park and the extension of the Hay Street Mall westwards to alongside the development. Demolition of the site had started by October 1986, by which time the planned tower had been expanded slightly to 47 floors. The 1987 approval of the redevelopment by the Perth City Council was controversial. The council's own Town Planning Scheme imposed a limit on the number of parking bays in the central business district to ensure that the city streets could handle increased traffic levels coming from extra parking. Under the scheme the site was only entitled to 300 car-parking bays. The developers sought approval for 1,175 car-parking bays, which Council planning experts had said would cause traffic to back up to King Street waiting for entry. The council wanted the developers to consider constructing a road tunnel from

Mounts Bay Road Mounts Bay Road is a major road in Perth, Western Australia, extending southwest from the Perth central business district, central business district along the north bank of the Swan River (Western Australia), Swan River, at the base of Kings Pa ...

to the underground parking to reduce traffic congestion around the tower, however the developers only agreed to consider building a pedestrian underpass beneath St Georges Terrace. The final planning approval for the redevelopment was ultimately passed by the council in an 18–9 decision on 19 October 1987, after a discussion of over two hours. The council made various planning concessions to allow the development to have 1,175 car-parking bays and exceed the allowable plot ratio. The council allowed the developers to transfer 15 storeys worth of plot ratio from the landscaped park at the corner of William and Hay streets, and gave bonuses of 10 storeys for actually building the park and 4 storeys for the public space and the quality of the development. As a result, more than half of the tower's eventual 51 floors came from these planning concessions. Councillors Peter Gallagher, Les Johnston and Michael Hale argued that the approval of the redevelopment set a "dangerous precedent", and the State's Planning Minister

Bob Pearce Robert John Pearce (born 24 February 1946) is a former Australian politician, who was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from 1977 until 1993 representing the seats of Gosnells and Armadale. Biography Pearce was born i ...

said that the building was "too big" and that the Council should not have granted the extra parking bays to the developers. At the time of the planning approval, the site was owned by

AMP Amp or AMP may refer to: * Ampere, a unit of electric current, often shortened to amp * Amplifier, a device that increases the amplitude of a signal Arts and entertainment Music * After Midnight Project, Los Angeles alternative rock band * A ...

, the

Reserve Bank of Australia The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is Australia's central bank and banknote issuing authority. It has had this role since 14 January 1960, when the ''Reserve Bank Act 1959'' removed the central banking functions from the Commonwealth Bank. Th ...

and Central Park Developments (the Bond-Connell corporation). The

State Government A state government is the government that controls a subdivision of a country in a federal form of government, which shares political power with the federal or national government. A state government may have some level of political autonom ...

approved the plans in November 1987 and the construction contract was awarded to

Multiplex Multiplex may refer to: Science and technology * Multiplex communication, combining many signals into one transmission circuit or channel ** Multiplex (television), a group of digital television or radio channels that are combined for broadcast * ...

Construction: 1988 to 1992

Construction on the tower started in 1988, with South Perth firm Bruechle Gilchrist & Evans as the project engineers. The building was constructed in a

modular Module, modular and modularity may refer to the concept of modularity. They may also refer to: Computer science and engineering * Modular design, the engineering discipline of designing complex devices using separately designed sub-components ...

method, whereby floor slabs were pre-cast off-site and simply dropped into the steel frame of the tower as construction progressed. Over of pre-cast floor units, both rectangular and triangular, were supplied for use in Central Park, the largest such contract ever awarded to an Australian company. Corporate Construction & Design, p 6 The modular construction principle even extended to the

restrooms A public toilet, restroom, bathroom or washroom is a room or small building with toilets (or urinals) and sinks for use by the general public. The facilities are available to customers, travelers, employees of a business, school pupils or pris ...

of the tower: they arrived on the building site as completely enclosed modules, ready to be fixed into position on each floor and have external services connected. Corporate Construction & Design, p 76 Major structural work on Central Park concluded with the installation in 1992 of its communications mast. The first tenants, accounting firm BDO Nelson Parkhill, moved into their offices in May 1992, followed by further tenants including

Ernst & Young EY, previously known as Ernst & Young, is a multinational corporation, multinational professional services partnership, network based in London, United Kingdom. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and PwC, it is one of the Big Four accounting firms, Big F ...

in December 1992. Following structural completion of the tower, the public park was landscaped in early 1993. Construction of Central Park cost $186.5 million, and upon completion the building overtook 108 St Georges Terrace as the tallest skyscraper in Perth. It was also the city's largest office tower by combined floor area, a title which was taken by QV1 when that building opened in 1994.

Post-construction

Since its completion, Central Park has been regarded as one of Perth's leading premium office towers. However, in the years following its opening Central Park faced a sluggish office rental market and experienced high vacancy rates for several years. The tower now has a stated of office and retail space across 51 occupied floors. Major current tenants are Rio Tinto and

WeWork WeWork Inc., headquartered in New York City, is a provider of coworking spaces, including physical and virtual shared spaces, in approximately 600 buildings in 125 cities. WeWork was founded in 2010 by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey. Ove ...

St George Bank St.George Bank is an Australian bank with its headquarters in Sydney. Since a 2008 merger, the bank has been part of Westpac, having previously been an independent legal entity. In 2010, St.George was deregistered as a company and ceased to be ...

also occupies some space in the building and in mid-2007 the St George logo was installed at the top of the tower and was removed in mid-2014. In mid-2015 the Rio Tinto logo was installed on the top four sides of the tower. In September 1999, high winds during a heavy storm resulted in the dislodgement of some domes in the canopy over the building's forecourt. This led to the closure of St Georges Terrace entrance as a safety precaution. The building's then-owner, the Government Employees Superannuation Board, subsequently initiated legal action against the tower's builder Multiplex. Since 2001, the tower has played host to an annual stair climb race up 53 flights of stairs to the roof. In 2008 the event raised $103,719 for MS Australia. In 2003, the

Perron Group Lloyd Stanley Perron (2 November 1922 23 November 2018) was an Australian businessman and philanthropist. Biography Perron left school at the age of 14 to sell hand-carved handkerchief boxes. He did not attend high school. He started his bus ...

purchased a 50% stake in the building. Central Park has remained the tallest building in Perth since its completion. In September 2024, a $66million facelift was completed. This involved the replacement of panelling and lights.

Design

Central Park was the fourth and largest stage in the plan by architects Forbes & Fitzhardinge for the surrounding commercial precinct, which included the AMP Building, the Commonwealth Bank building and the Wesley Centre. Corporate Construction & Design, p 7 The design of the tower changed several times as the prospect of different planning concessions changed. The building as ultimately constructed measures from

to the roof of the mechanical penthouse, and to the tip of its communications antenna. The tower has a composite steel and concrete frame featuring a pre-stressed, reinforced slip-form concrete core, which is stiffened by an outrigger

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as Beam (structure), beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so ...

at the top of the tower and at the various side setbacks. At the time of its completion, Central Park was the tallest core-stiffened building in Australia. The core stiffening method minimises the sway of the building in winds, which even after the core stiffening is around at the tower's top. The use of a service core structure for the building minimised the number of internal columns that were needed, with only two on the largest floors, which maximised usable space. Corporate Construction & Design, p 71 The diameter columns for the tower are made of composite steel and concrete, encased within a permanent formwork of Spiroduct tubing. The pre-cast floor slabs are supported by fire-treated steel beams and provided with a composite action by in-situ topping. The profile of the building has multiple setbacks, to provide for variable floor areas to cater to the needs of different tenants. The plan of the tower is based upon a square, with triangular wings extending from opposite sides. The building was oriented to make best use of the relatively narrow frontage onto St Georges Terrace. Corporate Construction & Design, p 11 The tower is clad with aluminium and glass curtain walls. The building has 5,000 sheets of glass, which get cleaned twice per year. Because of high winds, it can take up to 3 months to complete one window-washing circuit of the building. To clean the exterior faces of the building, the window cleaners have to move vertically over . Central Park was noted upon its opening for being technologically advanced, with "fully computerised air conditioning", which uses data from 1,400 sensors on each floor to regulate temperatures in an energy-efficient way. From its uppermost floors, there are views out to Kings Park and the Indian Ocean. However, members of the public are not permitted to observe from the building except on designated charity days. The

podium A podium (: podiums or podia) is a platform used to raise something to a short distance above its surroundings. In architecture a building can rest on a large podium. Podiums can also be used to raise people, for instance the conductor of a ...

of the building is clad with stone to complement the surrounding street frontages, and the foyer is decorated with

mural A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

s by artist Brian McKay on of aluminium wall panels. In addition to the of office space, of retail space and 1,030 basement car-parking bays in the project at completion, the site also includes a landscaped park, which leads towards the intended focal point of the precinct, the restored

Wesley Church Wesley Church may refer to: *Wesley Church, Melbourne, Australia, a Uniting Church *Wesley Church, Perth, Australia, a Uniting Church *Wesley Church, Albany, Australia, a Uniting Church *Wesley Church, Seremban, Malaysia *Wesley Church, Egmore W ...

on the opposite side of Hay Street. The architects intended the park to act as a "breathing space in the hard linear nature of the Hay Street Mall". The park contains sunken seated areas and raised grassed areas, as well as a fountain as the centrepiece. There is also a fountain and a large plaza area which provides a pedestrian thoroughfare to

. It has been variously described as "magnificent", "one of the few green strips in the city outside the grassed area on the river foreshore", the "green lungs of the city", and "a backyard-sized patch of grass".

Gallery

File:CentralParkWesleyPerth gobeirne.jpg, The building seen behind the spires of the

File:Central Park Perth.jpg, The building seen at dusk File:Central Park, Perth awning.jpg, Central Park awnings File:Perth skyline from KS1, November 2017.jpg, Central Park as seen from KS1

References

External links

Official site

SkyscraperPage for the tower
* {{Perth skyscrapers, state=collapsed Office buildings completed in 1992 Retail buildings in Western Australia St Georges Terrace Skyscraper office buildings in Perth, Western Australia 1992 establishments in Australia Modernist architecture in Australia