In 2011, Hiromi worked in conjunction with collins and turner architects, MBMO Architects’ Sven Ollmann and Plus Minus Design’s Phillip Arnold on collins and turners’ shortlisted entry into the design excellence competition for the $215m redevelopment of Mirvac’s 200 George Street in Sydney’s CBD.
The brief called for a detailed proposal for a new 35-storey tower, the redevelopment of an eight-storey building in Daley Street, and a strategy to integrate the ground level of the development with the future pedestrianised George Street. It would also revitalise the network of CBD laneways that connect to the site with a through-site link.
Hiromi worked on the principle of the core’s design and the podium/entry level of the tower, and was responsible for revitalising the building in Daley Street for new and innovative uses.
The tower design proposed a compact and efficient floor plate that maximised Harbour and CBD views through a southern location for the building core.
The tower plan was articulated as a series of fingers of flexible open-plan office accommodation, interlinked three-dimensionally with multi-floor spaces articulated as sky gardens. These would be semi-landscaped spaces providing amenity and potential uses as break-out spaces, meeting rooms, or cafes for individual tenancies, such as can be seen at the nearby Harry Seidler-designed 9 Castlereagh Street in whose entry lobby revitalisation Hiromi was involved in 2010-2011.
The proposed public areas linked George Street with the city laneways via an eight-storey entry void containing a huge aquarium within a dramatic light-filled space that included fine retail and public art, as well as the entry to the tower lobby via a suspended glazed bridge link.