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SHR Criteria a)
[Historical significance] | - Qantas House is an important landmark in the development of the modern office building in Australia. Significant for its use of early curtain wall technology and as one of the last multi-storey buildings designed prior to amendments to the Heights of Buildings Act in 1957 in NSW, it is from the first phase of curtain wall buildings that provided a transition to the mature high-rise buildings of the 1960s.
- Qantas House is significant as the first purpose-built world headquarters office building for Qantas Empire Airways, at that time Australia's only, and Government-owned, international airline. It is important evidence of the rapid post-War growth in Qantas Empire Airways' international operations and in air travel generally. Alterations to Qantas House to allow for the construction by Qantas of the adjacent Wentworth Hotel are important evidence of changes in the nature of air travel and the growth of international tourism in Australia.
- Qantas House is a statement of the confidence and progressive spirit which was characteristic of Australia during the 1950s. The international status and progressive nature of Qantas' operations when combined with the exuberant form and imagery, the use of innovative and local materials, and innovative techniques and services in the building itself, provides an exemplar of the positive, forward-looking aspects of Australian society during this period.
- The construction of Qantas House marked the partial implementation of a significant town planning scheme for the betterment of Sydney and provided the pattern for the eventual completion of Chifley Square as a significant urban space some eighty years after it was first envisaged. The fulfilment of this town planning vision provides important evidence of the complex nature of such activity and the interaction between various levels of Government, professionals and land owners.
- Qantas House shows the continuity of use from the time of construction to the present as a commercial office building and the continuous use of the ground floor for a publicly accessible use associated with travel. It provides evidence of the period during which air travel originated at city terminals for departure to Sydney Airport. It also provides evidence of the nature of changes in the nature of office use and fitout since the time of construction, including those resulting form the change from a single owner occupier to multiple tenancies on its upper levels.
The State Heritage Register inclusion criteria satisfied are:
- is associated with a significant activity or historical phases;
- maintains or shows the continuity of historical process of activity; and
- shows evidence of significant human activity. |
SHR Criteria b)
[Associative significance] | - Qantas House has a strong association with Qantas Airways, a prominent Australian company of international renown. Qantas Empire Airways constructed the building as its first purpose-designed world headquarters, as an identifiable icon for its modern image, and was its sole occupant for twenty-five years. This association is continued through its lease of the ground and mezzanine floors and naming rights to the building.
- Qantas House is important for its public use associations with air travellers since its time of construction, as a booking and information venue for Qantas and other airlines that occupied the ground floor including TAA and Australian Airlines.
- Qantas House was designed by the noted architectural firm Rudder Littlemore & Rudder, with Felix Tavener as the design architect, and is arguably their most significant building achievement.
The State Heritage Register inclusion criteria satisfied is:
- is associated with a significant event, person or groups of persons. |
SHR Criteria c)
[Aesthetic significance] | - Qantas House is a masterpiece of architectural form, composition and construction. It represents the highest standards of architectural design response its urban setting and its client's needs. Its unique graceful double curved from strikes a chord with the public and professionals alike. The composition of its façade elements is coherently ordered, as is its curtain wall construction featuring aerofoil-shaped mullions, symbolically linking building and client, lustrous teal coloured spandrels and green-tinted glazing.
- Qantas House is an important early and innovative example of post-War multi-storeyed office building in Australia. It was one of the first uses of curtain-walled technology in Australia and was designed as a showcase for Australian materials. It also featured an innovative internal fitout and use of air conditioning services. It was critically acclaimed in the architectural press at the time and it was the recipient of the 1959 Royal Institute of British Architects Bronze Medal.
- Qantas House is significant as a variation within the Post-War International style of architecture, representing some aspects of transition from interwar European modernism. Characteristics of earlier styles can be identified in both the building (a humanist/organic form, a traditional composition and symbolic use of elemental forms) and in the influences identified by its designer, while its materials, such as aluminium, and its curtain wall construction arrived as post-War construction technologies.
- As a landmark building in such a prominent location, Qantas House demonstrates an excellent urban design response. Its relationship with Chifley Square, which it helps to define, reflects earlier twentieth-century schemes for the space and has itself been respected by the recent developments around this important urban space. The generous footpath space n front of Qantas House provides an appropriate forecourt to the public ground-floor booking hall.
- Qantas House was designed as and forms an aesthetically distinctive termination of the northern view along Elizabeth Street, while at the same time the building leads the eye around the Chifley Square space and onto the extension of Elizabeth Street as Philip Street.
- The external form of Qantas House retains its integrity with only minor alteration, and its key internal ground-floor/mezzanine space is retained along with its key internal circulation spaces. Although much of the building's internal fabric has been altered, the external fabric remains largely intact.
The State Heritage Register inclusion criteria satisfied are:
- shows, or is associated with, creative or technical innovating or achievement;
- is aesthetically distinctive;
- has landmark qualities and
- exemplifies a particular taste, style or technology. |
SHR Criteria d)
[Social significance] | - It is likely that Qantas House is viewed as culturally significant within the community of NSW generally, not just for its association with Qantas, an Australian corporate icon, but also for its readily appreciated aesthetic and townscape qualities. This level of esteem was evident at the time of construction and there is evidence, through media coverage in recent years when it was perceived as being under threat, that it remains.
- Qantas House is also held in a high level of esteem by the architectural profession and other conservation groups in NSW. The building is included on the Royal Australian Institute of Architects Register of Twentieth Century Buildings of Significance and they recently nominated the building for inclusion on the State Heritage Register.
- Qantas House is likely to have a strong association for current and former employees of Qantas Airways because of its former headquarters role for twenty-five years and its current role as the Qantas city-based booking office.
The State Heritage Register inclusion criteria satisfied are:
- is important for its associations with an identifiable group; and
- is crucial to a community's sense of place. |
SHR Criteria e)
[Research potential] | - Although the building interior has been considerably altered, it is likely that some internet fabric of the interior would be able to reveal further information about spatial arrangements, materials and finishes from the original construction period.
- Qantas House has the potential to yield important information on aspects of mid-twentieth-century architectural history and other technical aspects of its construction, such as the detail of the internal fitout, the provision of air conditioning services, the first phases of curtain wall construction and office functional arrangements in the 1950s and 1960s.
- Qantas House is an important reference site for its early use of high-quality, curtain-walled technology and as a showcase for Australian building materials, including the granite and sandstone facing of the façade.
- Because of the depth of excavation for the construction of the basement levels for Qantas House across most of the site, there is little potential for archaeological remains that predate the existing building to remain intact. There is some potential for intact subsurface deposits to survive in the northwestern corner of the site (currently lightwell) as the amount of disturbance that has occurred in these areas is uncertain. The northwestern corner of the site may contain the northern extension of an early brick-barrel drain, dating to the 1820s. (This drain previously ran diagonally across the site but was removed during the construction of Qantas House and replaced by a modern ceramic drainpipe. It is also likely to adjoin the southeastern boundary of the site).
- Although not part of the Qantas House site itself, the area adjoining the front of Qantas House (Philip Street and Chifley Square) has high potential to contain intact subsurface deposits related to the previous street alignment and associated development.
The State Heritage Register inclusion criteria satisfied are:
- has the potential to yield new or further substantial scientific and/or archaeological information; and
- is an important benchmark or reference site or type. |
SHR Criteria f)
[Rarity] | - Qantas House is a rare and outstanding example of architectural design of the highest quality in the Australian context from the first phase of post-War, multi-storey commercial building construction in Australia in the period up to 1960.
- Qantas House is a unique example in the Australian context of a curved, curtain wall building of this type and period.
- The façade of Qantas House retains its original, aluminium-framed, curtain wall construction, with distinctive aerofoil-shaped mullions. This early technology is becoming increasingly rare with continual upgrading of buildings and the Qantas House façade is an excellent example of this type.
- Qantas House is one of the five heritage listed 'non-high-rise' multi-storeyed buildings within Sydney (four in the city of Sydney and one in North Sydney) to remain that were constructed prior to 1960. Qantas House and the MLC building in North Sydney represent the finest examples from this period, and both represent distinctive and different forms of Post-War International style architecture.
- Qantas House is part of a small group of multi-storey buildings constructed by the last generation of Post-War corporate clients whose buildings were specifically designed to reflect that corporation's public image.
- Qantas House is a rare example of Post-War International Style architecture with an expressionist form.
- Qantas House illustrates a high quality consideration for its context and for urban design, forming a key element in the Chifley Square urban area that was part of this long-standing town planning scheme for the betterment of this area of Sydney that dated to the early twentieth century.
The State Heritage Register inclusion criteria satisfied are:
- scarce example of particular style custom or activity esteemed by the community; and
- demonstrates designs or techniques of exceptional interest. |
SHR Criteria g)
[Representativeness] | - Qantas House is representative of the intact Post-War International style, multi-storeyed office buildings from the 1950s. It is one of only a handful of similar intact buildings in Sydney from that period and only a small numbering Australia.
- Qantas House is a fine example of early curtain-walled building technology in Australia, with an unconventional curved design.
- Qantas House is one of the small group of post-War, multi-storeyed office buildings remaining intact in NSW whose design preceded the amendments to the Heights of Buildings Act in 1957.
- Qantas House is representative of the group of commercial buildings in Sydney associated with travel and is representative of the group of buildings with ground-floor public booking hall spaces.
- Qantas House is a good example of the work of the architectural firm Rudder Littlemore and Rudder.
- Qantas House is associated with the group of planned and implemented proposals for the betterment of Sydney's streets.
The State Heritage Register inclusion criteria satisfied are:
- is a fine example of its type;
- is part of a group which collectively illustrate a representative type; and
- is outstanding because of its setting, condition or size. |
| Assessment criteria: | Items are assessed against the  State Heritage Register (SHR) Criteria to determine the level of significance. Refer to the Listings below for the level of statutory protection. |
