Legion House

Three retail tenancies are incorporated into the ground floor with two new office floors added along with a western extension providing additional office space. A new lift and stair have been located external to the building in an elegantly detailed, curved glass enclosure to minimise the heritage impact while creating both a new laneway entry to the building and visual interest. Additionally, this preserved floor area within the existing building. The upper floor extension is set back along Castlereagh Street to mitigate visual impact and maintain the dominance of the heritage facade to the street.

Legion House has set a new benchmark for heritage refurbishments and promotes the creation of sustainable city precincts, having been refurbished and designed to the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council’s definition of a zero carbon building. By consideration of the site’s rich history, adopting a contemporary design approach to new elements and juxtaposing new design with heritage elements, Legion House achieves an authentic response to the building’s heritage values. It is also an exemplar how culturally significant and historic architectural features can be integrated with high-tech ESD developments to deliver a ‘best-of-all-worlds’ contemporary building.