Western Australia
Representing a paradigm shift for the Perth CBD, 190 St Georges Terrace is a departure from the traditional corporate lobby experience. Offering a boutique, club-like atmosphere this forgotten space has been revitalised through a crafted, contextual approach that has resulted in a unique and commercially successful corporate hospitality offering.
At the heart of the project is the “Living Laneway”, a string of curated experiences extending across the site, integrating the vibrant new lobby, café, wine bar, and lush urban courtyard.
The client and design team embraced a bold strategy by eschewing rigid distinctions between public and private areas, instead opting to invest in universally accessible high-quality amenities. The thoughtful integration of spaces at 190 St Georges Terrace demonstrates a forward-thinking approach that sets the project apart in architectural and experiential terms.
The John Septimus Roe Award for Urban Design
OneNinety delivers a ground-breaking transformation in commercial lobby design, establishing an intimate, exclusive ambiance that transcends traditional workplace boundaries. This project revitalizes overlooked CBD spaces with a meticulous, contextual approach, seamlessly integrating retail and hospitality functions.
The “Living Laneway”, a thoughtfully curated sequence of experiences, extends from the Terrace through a dynamic lobby to a lush urban courtyard, ultimately connecting to Hay Street via an upgraded rear gateway.
The project breathes new life into the urban fabric by replacing ground-level facades with full-height glazing, fostering greater street-level engagement and eliminating dead spaces. The western façade’s picture windows create a dialogue with the Cloisters precinct and a heritage fig tree, while dark granite cladding harmonizes with the precinct’s bluestone paving.
Designed to blur the lines between work and leisure, OneNinety offers warm, adaptable spaces ideal for spontaneous collaboration for more than just tenants. The addition of an exclusive ground-floor café and wine bar, alongside one of the CBD’s few landscaped courtyards, redefines the space as a “third place” beyond conventional workplaces.
Emphasizing sustainability, the project upcycles the existing building, upgrades systems for efficiency, and incorporates rooftop solar and rainwater capture.
OneNinety sets a new benchmark in lobby refurbishment, enriching the urban experience for tenants and visitors alike.
Award for Commercial Architecture
OneNinety is a clever project that achieves a lot for our city through a re-thinking of what a corporate lobby experience could be. The project deftly re-organises a 40-year-old buildings front of house and back of house spaces to create a ‘living laneway’ which facilitates a critical North-South link through a city block whilst encouraging foot traffic past new commercial tenancies.
The key move of replacing a defunct porte-cochere with a lush North facing Courtyard and Hospitality tenancy brings welcome relief and activation to the Laneway and the counter move of bringing retail to St.George’s Terrace heralds a potential new beginning for our city’s primary commercial street.
Modifications to the existing building’s façade have focused on removing unsympathetic additions and subtly reinforcing the design intent of the original structure. These careful modifications combined with the club-like interiors of the lobby have successfully repositioned the building within the CBD office market, increasing its desirability for lease and thus importantly extending the buildings design life. OneNinety sets a clear example for others to follow.
Award for Interior Architecture
OneNinety demonstrates the transformative power of an Interior to reposition an entire existing building and blend together a variety of different new programs into a welcoming and club-like atmosphere.
A series of successful Interior devices have been utilised to manage the length and height of the space as well as transition the user from Street to Interior to Courtyard to Laneway. These devices include a datum of dark timber running both sides of the length of the volume, this datum capturing recessed booths and high bars as well as discreetly hiding the storerooms and toilets of the hospitality tenancy. Above this datum line concealed lighting casts across a colour contrasting polished plaster, pleasingly removing glare from eye level. A suspended chainmail lantern hovers over the service bar and workclub meeting zone creating a focus point of tactility and warmth in the centre of the space as well as mediating the contrasting horizontal materiality.
The selection of Western Australian Granite and celebration of marble from the Pilbara are prominent elements of the Interior space. OneNinety is a cohesive example of a human centred design approach to a corporate lobby experience which considers the use of the space for short or prolonged periods by both worker and visitor.
Fiveight’s “revitalist” approach is engrained into the design of OneNinety. Designed with a boutique mindset, the building blurs the lines between work and play, achieving industry-wide recognition as the new benchmark in lobby refurbishment and activation.
Warm, diverse and adaptable spaces are conducive to spontaneous collaboration. The spaces offer an extension to the traditional workplace and are an attractor of like-minded professionals, creating a sense of community and brand recognition for tenants.
COPIA, an exclusive ground-floor café/wine bar connected to one of the few landscaped courtyards within the CBD, transcends the project into a “third place”, beyond conventional workplace settings.
The Australian Institute of Architects acknowledges First Nations peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the lands, waters, and skies of the continent now called Australia.
We express our gratitude to their Elders and Knowledge Holders whose wisdom, actions and knowledge have kept culture alive.
We recognise First Nations peoples as the first architects and builders. We appreciate their continuing work on Country from pre-invasion times to contemporary First Nations architects, and respect their rights to continue to care for Country.
