Friday 13 July 2012

RIALTO TOWERS, MELBOURNE

The Rialto Towers (often The Rialto) is a skyscraper located at 525 Collins Street, in the western side of the central business district of Melbourne, Australia. It is the second-tallest reinforced concrete building and the tallest office building in the Southern Hemisphere, when measured to its roof (several other skyscrapers in Australia are taller if their spires are included, as are some other structures in Australia such as communications masts and observation towers). The Rialto Towers featured Melbourne's first skyscraper public observation deck which operated between 1994 and 31 December 2009. It was also the location of Melbourne's first Tower running event.

Designed by architects Gerard de Preu and Partners in association with Perrott Lyon Mathieson, the building was built between 1982 and 1986, opening in October 1986, and takes its name from the much older Rialto Building next door. The massive glass curtain wall façade of reinforced blue tinted mirrored glass is its central feature and changes colour during the day, ranging from a trademark dark blue to a brilliant gold during sunset. It is 251 m high, with 63 floors and 3 basement floors. It comprises two conjoined towers, the shorter North Tower being 185 m high with 43 floors. In total, there are 84,000 m² of office space.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme.








14 comments:

  1. A great post. Such a blue sky between the houses!

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  2. Great sculpture!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

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  3. MY goodness, every post I visit is better then the one before. Afraid I would have to be here for days to visit all your wonderful entries, and I just can't spare the time right now. But, I will be add a few new ones each time I visit until I get caught up.

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  4. The building must have been difficult to capture. Looks great.
    Touching story with the sculpted pieces.

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  5. What a fantastic building and fascinating history! I, too, love the sculptures and those lovely blue skies are the perfect backdrop, Nick! Have a great weekend!

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  6. Nice reflection and artwork.

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  7. Beautifully captured sky!

    Fire in the Sky
    Have a great weekend.

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  8. Lovely sky photos. Very interesting sculptures too.

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  9. Wonderful shots - looks like an interesting place to spend some time.

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  10. Great shots, Nick. And I love the bronze statue of the family.

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  11. You are an amazing architectural photographer Nick! The skyscraper is an arrow pointing to the beautiful Australian blue sky. As you pointed out in the post above, the buildings are spaced so well so that the sky shows! I really love this. The sculpture is lovely and touching and a great reminder of the kind of brave Immigrant heritage our two countries share.

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  12. A unique sculpture! What an idea!Thanks for sharing Nick.

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  13. thats such a lovely sculpture!

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  14. Beautiful sculptures and an imposing skyscraper

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