Preceded by Optus Centre Type Office Antenna spire 190 m (620 ft) Height 182 m, 190 m to tip Floor area 5 ha Completed 1977 | Surpassed by ANZ at Collins Place Location Melbourne, Australia Roof 183 m (600 ft) Floors 49 Phone +61 3 9663 3122 | |
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Address L5 80 Collins St, Melbourne VIC 3000, Australia Architect Perrott Lyon Timlock & Kesa Similar Optus Centre, 120 Collins Street, 101 Collins Street, Bourke Place, National Bank House | ||
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Nauru House (also called 80 Collins Street) is a landmark 52-storey building located in the Melbourne CBD, in the Australian state of Victoria. The building was designed by architectural firm Perrott Lyon Timlock & Kesa.
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History
The land the building sits on was bought in 1972 at a price of A$19 million by the government of the Republic of Nauru as an international investment. Nauru, which had become incredibly wealthy thanks to the selling of phosphate, began the Nauru Phosphate Royalties Trust (NPRT) to re-invest profits in international real estate.
Controversy was stirred when construction began in 1972, as the government of Nauru decided to raze two buildings with "high heritage value" in order to have the building face the desirable Collins Street, and thus, a Collins Street address. Even amid public outcry, the historic buildings were torn down to make way for construction.
When completed in 1977 it became the tallest building in Melbourne; however, it was not tall enough to take the mantle as Australia's tallest building, with the strikingly similar MLC Centre in Sydney retaining that honour from when it was completed just a few months earlier in the same year. In 1981, Nauru House was surpassed in height by the Regent Hotel (now Sofitel Melbourne) to no longer be the tallest building in Melbourne.
Following decades of mismanagement, corruption, and spiralling loans to General Electric, estimated to amount to approximately A$227 million, the NPRT was forced to sell off its international assets to pay loans. Nauru House is now owned by the Queensland Investment Corporation after purchasing the building for A$140 million in December 2004.
Facade
Between 1994 and 1996, the Nauru House went under a facelift to replace the former pebble-concrete facade of the building with new, matte-gray aluminium siding.
Records
Following the building's completion, it was the tallest building in Melbourne until 1980, when the nearby Collins Place complex was opened.