Sydney’s Biggest Commercial Tower Tops Out

Western Sydney’s tallest tower has topped out at 225m high to dominate the skyline of Sydney’s second CBD.

Walker Corporation’s 8 Parramatta Square has reached structural completion and executive chairman Lang Walker said the tower would be a “beacon of success” for the people of Western Sydney.

It is part of the $2.7-billion Parramatta Square redevelopment, which includes four towers, premium-grade office space, a multi-level retail podium and civic building, as well as a university campus as part of the wider precinct where 40,000 people will be working from mid-2022.

“Eight Parramatta Square is the jewel in the crown of our $3.2-billion urban transformation of Sydney’s second CBD,” Walker said.

“It’s not only the tallest in Western Sydney, it’s the biggest too, with the largest gross floor area of any commercial office building in Australia and in 2022 is set to be in the top 80 largest office buildings in the world.

“With 8 Parramatta Square, Walker has delivered its vision of a bold, inspiring and timeless architectural statement for Parramatta, seamlessly interlinked with trains and light rail, metro, buses, ferries and the nearby West Connex.

“Three, 4, 6 and 8 Parramatta Square provide the same amount of net office space as almost four Chifley Towers.”

Deloitte Australia signed a 10-year lease in the commercial tower to become a key tenant at 8 Parramatta Square from September, 2022.

The building has a 51,000sq m glass curtain wall facade—enough glass to cover nearly nine football fields. There are 41 lifts servicing the 55-storey building, which is targeting a 6 Star Green Star rating and 5.5 star NABERS Energy rating, supported by a rooftop solar array.

Built executive chairman Marco Rossi said the topping out of 6 and 8 Parramatta Square was a proud moment for the Built Obayashi joint-venture construction team.

“Parramatta Square, and specifically towers 6 and 8m have been one of the most ambitious and exciting construction projects in Australia right now and we’ve been incredibly proud to be a part of this visionary urban transformation to cement Sydney’s second CBD,” Rossi said.

“We’re also very proud of our relationship with Walker Corporation which has seen us selected to deliver all four towers—3, 4, 6 and 8—over the past five years, and topping out Australia’s largest commercial tower is a ... milestone to share and celebrate how far we have come as a business.”

Urban Taskforce chief executive Tom Forrest congratulated Walker Corporation on its completion of the 8 Parramatta Square structural works.

“Walker Corporation has done an outstanding job to deliver this second and third towers, including an impressive skybridge between the buildings, during the most challenging period of Covid closedowns.

“At 120,000sq m of floorspace and 225m tall, it is Australia’s biggest office tower.”

Forrest said he hoped the NSW public service would return to the office and help drive the economy of “Sydney’s second great city”.

“While the private sector is returning to their offices, too many public servants have become too comfortable with Teams meetings and pyjama bottoms under the desk,” he said.