Work starts on 33-storey pencil tower on a 6.4m Haymarket site

The report puts the total site at about 345sqm, which it likens to a standard tennis court allotment. At ground level the street footprint is 6.4m wide, which the outlet compares with two small hatchbacks parked bumper to bumper.

The outlet says the project had been in planning and design for years, and that works were formally started over spring. It describes the current activity as early construction works begun recently on site. The report does not name the developer, and does not give a cost or a completion date.

The numbers

The outlet lists a 33-storey building, a 173-room hotel and a 6.4m frontage on a site of about 345sqm. The same report says the 6.4m frontage makes the tower slimmer than Collins House, an 11m-wide skinny skyscraper in Melbourne.

What’s next

Urban planning consultancy Mecone managed the development application, the outlet says, and four architectural firms were invited to submit designs. Durbach Block Jaggers was selected as the preferred design in 2021.

To make the narrow plan work, the report says architect Neil Durbach described each hotel room at the time as “almost like a train compartment”. The report says he also said the compact rooms would be offset by shared spaces, including a pool at the top of the building and a large public room at the base.

The outlet says the project has drawn a mixed response, with some onlookers commending the ingenuity and technical advances and others questioning how slim the building will be. It says safeguards in the design are meant to prevent structural sway. No construction timetable was given in the report, so the date the tower could open is not known.

The report also canvasses online reaction, citing social media users who doubted the narrow design and compared it with a New York skinny tower. It adds that Sydney has seen structural problems in high-rises before, citing the 2018 evacuation of Opal Tower at Sydney Olympic Park after cracking was found, and an evacuation a year later of a Mascot tower after rapid structural deformation. The report does not link either case to the Haymarket design.

For other recent Sydney tower news, see Coronation’s Archer and Albert Chatswood sky home.