Sydney Airport Air Traffic Control Tower, Heritage-listed air traffic control tower at Sydney Airport, New South Wales, Australia
Sydney Airport Air Traffic Control Tower is a cable-stayed concrete tower at Sydney Airport, New South Wales, listed on the Commonwealth Heritage List. Its off-white segmental shaft, 2.5 m in diameter, rises 20 m to a steel cloverleaf platform with six blue-tinted glass bays, above which sits a circular cabin with 18 canted frameless glass panels. A spiral aluminium staircase with porthole windows sweeps around the shaft, and an external yellow-framed lift serves the platform.
The tower was designed by the architectural firm Ancher, Mortlock & Woolley, with construction starting in August 1993. It opened on January 6, 1996, replacing the earlier air traffic control facilities that had served the airport before.
The tower's design by Ken Woolley was meant to be a good landmark beside General Holmes Drive, and the Civil Aviation Authority backed that aim. Its six-bay service platform, nicknamed the "beer cans" and clad in blue-tinted glass, sits below the cabin. The base building's doughnut plan is broken to the north-east by a paved path to the entrance lobby.
The tower is clearly visible from the main terminal areas, but access to the building itself is generally restricted for security reasons. Those wishing to see it up close should check in advance whether any access is available.
The tower's concrete shaft was built using an equilateral triangle layout, which allowed prefabricated panels to be used throughout the structure. This approach is not visible from the outside but is the reason the building went up faster than a traditional design would have allowed.
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