When the AMP building at 33 Alfred Street was completed in 1962, it was a landmark. At 117 metres, it was double the height of any other block, the tallest office tower in Sydney and the first skyscraper to break the city's 1912 height limit of 150 feet (46 metres). Its rooftop terrace drew tourists and school groups who marvelled at views reaching as far as the Kurnell sandhills.
Inside, however, the experience was more argh than ooh. The tartan-patterned curtain-glass walls, featuring opaque panels sprinkled with silver and real gold leaf, sparkled in the light but restricted the view from the inside out. Architect Matthew Morel, a director of JPW who worked on the restoration, said only someone standing right next to the windows could see "the full drama of Sydney Harbour in front of them". The building, he said, "had the best views in Sydney but the smallest windows".
After a restoration and modernisation project spanning 12 years at a cost of $200 million, the building looks remarkably similar from the outside, where it landed among old shopfronts and Victorian terraces like a supersized alien. Inside, there are big changes, including a new design for the curtain walls that makes it easier to see out. Morel and his team have resolved, at last, the oddity of a tower with spectacular views that few inside could enjoy.