6 February 2013 — A heliostat that will be incorporated at One Central Park, the Frasers Property and Sekisui House joint venture project on the fringe of the Sydney CBD, is part of a public art budget that will run to a massive $8 million for the site, understood to be a record for a development site in Australia.
Total end value of the development, with Watpac Construction as builder, will be around $2 billion. It will include residential, retail and offices with high environmental ratings, including a major trigeneration energy system.
Frasers Property Australia chief executive officer Guy Pahor said the heliostat project alone had been “30 months in the making”.
It involves a 110-tonne reflector steel frame, lifted 100 metres above Sydney’s Broadway and fixed to the side of one of the residential towers.
The cantilevered structure will support a heliostat, a spectacular lighting artwork, along with a garden terrace and plunge pool, at the Jean Nouvel-designed One Central Park development.
Mr Pahor said the process had been lengthy, rigorous and ” meticulously and painstakingly orchestrated.”
Once completed, the cantilever will host a Sky Garden – with outdoor dining and a plunge pool for use by residents of Sky at One Central Park.
The heliostat will be affixed to the bottom of the cantilevered Sky Garden, reflecting sunlight to One Central Park’s retail atrium and toward Chippendale Green during the day.
At night, the heliostat will transform into a piece of public art with 2880 coloured LED lights creating a light display designed by French lighting artist Yann Kersale.
Watpac Construction NSW state manager Ric Wang said the lift was highly complex as the weight of reflector frame needed to perfectly counterbalance with that of One Central Park’s East tower.
“This is a delicate and scientific exercise in precision engineering,” he said.
The next task is to fix 320 large mirrored panels to the reflector frame.
Another part of the public art collection will be Patrick Blanc’s 21 vertical gardens affixed to One Central Park’s north and east facades.
Sky at One Central Park is due for completion late this year.