GIO Building

GIO Building
The Elizabeth Street building façade, in 2013
GIO Building (former Sun Building)
Location in Greater Sydney
Former names Sun Building
Sun Newspaper Building
General information
Status Complete
Type Skyscraper
Architectural style Interwar Skyscraper Gothic
Address 60-70 Elizabeth Street, Sydney central business district, New South Wales
Country Australia
Coordinates 33°52′06″S 151°12′39″E / 33.8682479719°S 151.2108732860°E / -33.8682479719; 151.2108732860Coordinates: 33°52′06″S 151°12′39″E / 33.8682479719°S 151.2108732860°E / -33.8682479719; 151.2108732860
Named for Government Insurance Office (GIO)
Opened 15 October 1929 (1929-10-15)
Renovation cost A$12 million (1985)
Client Sun Newspaper Limited
Owner NGI Investments Pty Ltd
Technical details
Material
  • Benedict stone
  • Uralla granite
  • Cudgegong marble
Floor count 10
Lifts/elevators 7
Design and construction
Architect Joseph Kethel
Architecture firm Thomas Rowe and Sydney Moore Green
Main contractor Concrete Constructions Ltd
Renovating team
Architect Keers Banks and Maitland
Official name GIO Building
Type Built
Criteria a., c., d., e.
Designated 2 April 1999
Reference no. 00683
References
[1]

The GIO Building, also known as the General Insurance Office Building and constructed as the Sun Building, is an heritage-listed office tower built in the Interwar Skyscraper Gothic style, located at 60-70 Elizabeth Street in the Sydney central business district, New South Wales, Australia.

On 2 April 1999 the building was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register with the following statement of significance:[1]

The GIO Building is historically significant because of its associations with Sun Newspapers Ltd newspaper publishing activities in Sydney during the first half of the twentieth century. Its site has associations with the historically prominent figure, Joshua Josephson.

The building is aesthetically significant because it is possibly the first major Interwar Skyscraper Gothic style building in Sydney, of which it is also a rare example, and because it is a major building designed by architect Joseph Kethel.

The building has technical significance, due to its early and extensive use of the proprietary building material, Benedict stone. It is possibly the first major application of this material in a large city building in NSW.

— Statement of significance, New South Wales State Heritage Register.

History

The building was constructed in 1929 to house the offices and printing presses of The Sun newspaper, an afternoon tabloid, which ran from 1910 until the 1980s. Sun Newspapers Limited occupied this site from 1929 until 1939. Joseph Kethel won the architectural competition top design the building. After the liquidation of Sun Newspapers in August 1939, the building was owned by Associated Newspapers Ltd. This building was the last of the great newspaper buildings to be built in the Sydney central business district, and the spectacular Skyscraper Gothic style confidently portrayed the commercial power of the media. The former Sun Building is one of only three in the city to be designed in this architectural style; with the other two being the Grace Hotel and the State Theatre.[2]

The Sun newspaper was acquired by John Fairfax & Sons in 1953 and the building sold for $1.1 million in 1954, to become the offices of the Government Insurance Office, or GIO,[3] at the time a controlled entity of the Government of New South Wales.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "GIO Building". New South Wales State Heritage Register. Office of Environment and Heritage. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  2. ↑ "Former Sun Building". Sydney Architecture. Retrieved 7 October 2017.
  3. ↑ Berry, Vanessa (17 November 2015). "A City Sun". Mirror Sydney. Retrieved 7 October 2017.

Attribution

This Wikipedia article was originally based on the GIO Building, listed on the "New South Wales State Heritage Register", published by the Government of New South Wales under CC-BY 3.0 AU licence (accessed on 7 October 2017).

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