Blues Point Tower

Blues Point Tower is an apartment block in Sydney, Australia. Located at McMahons Point, close to
North Sydney, the tower is 83m tall with 24 levels. Construction was completed in 1962, and it was Australia's tallest residential building from 1962-1970. The architect of the tower was Harry Seidler and Associates.

Blues Point Tower was the first high-rise strata title apartment building in the world. With strata title was first introduced in 1961 in the state of New South Wales, Australia, the year after the Utah Condominium Act of 1960, this allowed Blues Point Tower to become a landmark in residential property not only architecturally, but also legally and socially. The advent of strata title in New South Wales made property ownership possible for many more people since previously the tenant of a 'company title' apartment held shares in an entity which owned the building and was not therefore considered eligible for mortgage. It was for this reason Dick Dusseldorp whose company Civil and Civic developed and constructed Blues Point Tower had championed the development of strata title in New South Wales and later in Canberra.

During the construction the Civil and Civic site office was located in the Victorian villa ‘Bellvue’ (variously spelt ‘Bellview’ or 'Bell’vue') which occupied the site.

Blues Point Tower is considered by many Sydney residents to be an eyesore, or at least inconsistent with its surrounding buildings or cityscape. When confronted, Seidler stated "Come on, this is old news, stupid bloody nonsense, I'm sick to death of it. It's a journalistic gimmick. I've always thought Blues Point Tower is one of my best buildings and I stand by that. Anybody who can't see anything in it ought to go back to school."

External links

* [http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/09/27/1032734319538.html]
* [http://www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au/resources/documents/38_Track_tarmac_walk1.pdf]