Frasers’ application, lodged in early August with the NSW Department of Planning, proposes two residential towers of 116m and 64.5m high – the tallest tower matching the height of the neighbouring UTS Tower – above a common retail and recreational podium and garden. The $600 million complex will deliver 593 apartments across the two towers in a mix of studio, 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments, plus 14,000sqm of retail space.

Dramatically extending from the taller tower is a monumental cantilever housing a panoramic terrace and a theatrical public artwork: a innovative system of fixed and motorized mirrored panels known as a ‘heliostat’. The heliostat will capture sunlight and reflect it down onto the landscaped terraces, extending the central parkland at the heart of the new precinct into this very green building.

At night, the heliostat will be transformed by French lighting artist Yann Kersale, theatrically and colourfully illuminating the towers. Yann Kersale is a lighting artist of world renown and French architect Jean Nouvel is the 2008 Pritzker Prize winner – architecture’s top international accolade – continuing Frasers’ practice of working with the world’s best architects and designers.

Adding to the extraordinary nature of this creative architecture, French botanist Patrick Blanc has been commissioned to design and install a number of his renowned ‘vegetal’ vertical living artworks. These will combine with Jean Nouvel’s vertical gardens to cover 50% of the buildings’ façades with living greenery.

Blanc’s vegetal walls together with the vertical gardens will extend the planted area of the adjacent urban park vertically onto the building, creating a green wall of foliage installed onto grids extending to the full height of the buildings. The plants receive nutrients and water from a patented hydroponic system and so are able to thrive without being planted in soil.

This is the fourth PA submitted by Frasers Property Australia this year as we prepare for construction commencement next year. Previous PAs include applications for a Foster + Partners designed commercial campus on the corner of Broadway and Abercrombie Streets, and for a 6000sqm public park.