Central Park is a 51-storey office tower in Perth, Western Australia. The building measures from its base at St Georges Terrace 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 concessions made by the Perth City Council 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.

thumb|Central Park Tower Taken from [[St Georges Terrace]]

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

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History

Department stores

From as early as the 1930s, the site was home to a Foy & Gibson department store. The store extended all the way through from St Georges Terrace to Hay Street, featured a popular cafeteria and "had great areas of window display with island windows beyond the street frontage".

The site was later acquired by Central Park Developments, a joint venture of the Superannuation Board of Western Australia, Bond Corporation and L. R. Connell and Partners, and in 1986 had a value of $20 million. 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. 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 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.

Construction: 1988 to 1992

Construction on the tower started in 1988, The building was constructed in a modular method, whereby floor slabs were pre-cast off-site and simply dropped into the steel frame of the tower as construction progressed. The modular construction principle even extended to the restrooms 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.

Major structural work on Central Park concluded with the installation in 1992 of its communications mast.

Post-construction

thumb|Gardens at the base of Central Park

Since its completion, Central Park has been regarded as one of Perth's leading premium office towers. The tower now has a stated of office and retail space across 51 occupied floors. Major current tenants are Rio Tinto and WeWork. St George Bank 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. In 2008 the event raised $103,719 for MS Australia.

In 2003, the Perron Group 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.

The design of the tower changed several times as the prospect of different planning concessions changed. The building as ultimately constructed measures from St Georges Terrace to the roof of the mechanical penthouse,

thumb|Central Park building in Perth, with abseilers

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 at the top of the tower

At the time of its completion, Central Park was the tallest core-stiffened building in Australia. The diameter columns for the tower are made of composite steel and concrete, 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. The tower is clad with aluminium and glass curtain walls. To clean the exterior faces of the building, the window cleaners have to move vertically over . 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 on the opposite side of Hay Street. 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 St Georges Terrace. It has been variously described as "magnificent", "one of the few green strips in the city outside the grassed area on the river foreshore",

and "a backyard-sized patch of grass".

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File:CentralParkWesleyPerth gobeirne.jpg|The building seen behind the spires of the Wesley Church

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

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References

Further reading

  • Official site
  • SkyscraperPage for the tower