Northpoint, 100 Miller Street, North Sydney

R.M. Watson were engaged by Cromwell Property Group under a Design and Construct Lump Sum contract to over clad the façade of the commercial tower as part of a major repositioning of the Northpoint site in North Sydney.

The existing precast concrete façade of Northpoint, built in 1975, was suffering from a combination of corrosion induced spalling of the concrete as well as delamination of the 20mm exposed river gravel façade resulting in safety concerns for occupants and visitors to the site.

RMW started working with Cromwell in 2014 to review options for the treatment of the façade from traditional repair to coating and finally to the complete over cladding of the façade. After site trials eliminated the traditional approach to the repair of the façade due to cost and concerns about ongoing delamination of façade aggregate, a full over clad was determined as the best approach to not only permanently address the delamination issues but also to complement the major upgrade of the asset planned by Cromwell.

The project consisted of the following:

• Design and installation of a purpose-built cantilever hoarding over the retail construction site at the base of the tower.
• Installation of support brackets for the 6 mast climbers to ensure the access equipment and work would not interfere with the retail redevelopment below
• A façade make safe to remove all current major spalling and delamination.
• The design and installation of a fire resistant aluminium composite panel cladding system to cover all areas of precast concrete as well as upgrade the appearance of the ageing façade

Project Details:

• Removal and recycling of existing façade signage
• 16,000sq.m. engineered steel framing
• 20,000sq.m. ACP cladding installed
• 24,000l.m. silicone joints installed
• Programme – 14 months