New Olympic Park apartment building ‘Opal Tower’ ticks all the boxes

Sydney Olympic Park will have a new eastern gateway – a 30-storey apartment building being dubbed ‘Opal Tower’, being designed by Bates Smart.

The boutique architect firm was selected as the best in a competition that had invited just four of Australia’s finest practices to enter.

The winning design features a curvaceous, triangular-shaped building with green walls of living plants embedded into the façade, and elevated communal courtyards every five levels. A cascading water feature is one of many focal points of the gateway site, which will also have a childcare centre.

The development will markedly improve public access between Sydney Olympic Park and Bicentennial Park via a new landscaped bridge over Bennelong Parkway and a pedestrian tunnel under the existing railway line.

Attractive, practical and eco-friendly… all that we need in new architecture in Sin City.  Antonino Tati