The Sydney suburb of Crows Nest will have a new high perch under plans before the council for a 36-storey tower.

Designed by Turner and Silvester Fuller, with urban design input from Roberts Day, the apartment tower will be the tallest in the area will occupy an entire block known as Fiveways Junction, between the Pacific Highway and Falcon Street.

The 140-metre tower will comprise three interconnected “mini towers.” Nineteen existing allotments will be demolished for the development, which will feature a five-storey podium housing a mix of retail, commercial and community spaces.

In all, the development will accommodate 310 dwellings and 10,000 square metres of non-residential floor space in flexible floorplate sizes.

By way of public benefit, the developer Deicorp is proposing to build a 2,000 square community building with landscaped rooftop open space, along with providing affordable housing “up to a total value of $20 million.”

The site is the only one in Crows Nest to be identified as “significant” in the NSW government’s Metro system strategy and will be within walking distance of the proposed Crows Nest Metro Station, set to open by 2024.

The architects say the existing commercial and retail tenancies suffer from poor connections and the absence of suitable public spaces protected from the Pacific Highway, with many of them vacant and poorly performing.

“The amalgamation of the 19 allotments that currently make up the Fiveways Junction will enable this currently ‘lost space’ to be transformed as a vibrant and welcoming gateway to the Crows Nest Village,” planning documents state.

“The new ground plane will offer shade, soft landscape, urban furniture and a pedestrian friendly environment which will provide easy and safe connections to the major bus stop on Pacific Highway and to adjacent precincts.”

New laneways through the site will be designed to reinforce connections to existing street-grid and create additional permeability for the neighbourhood.

The proposed community building occupies a key corner of the site, “encouraging movement and social ownership.”

“The proposal offers a significant civic component that is easily separable as a stand-alone stratum and identifiable element,” the architects state. “The permeable nature of the podium multiplies the available perimeter connecting the tenancies, the public domain and creating excellent workplace amenity.”

The form of the podium has been designed to connect with the existing street walls along Falcon and Alexander streets and Pacific Highway and to relate in scale and detail to nearby heritage buildings.

Deicorp is hoping to attain planning approval by October 2021.

Architecture & Design Team

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