Culwulla Chambers
New South Wales, Australia
Exterior only
Visible from the street; the inside is private.
Culwulla Chambers, located at 67 Castlereagh Street in Sydney's Central Business District, is a heritage-listed commercial building completed in 1912. Designed in the Federation Freestyle Palazzo style by the architectural firm Spain, Cosh and Minnett, it stands as a landmark of early Australian urban development, though technically a masonry rather than steel-frame structure. At 178 feet (54 metres), it became Australia's tallest habitable building upon completion, exceeding Melbourne's Australian Building and sparking heated public debate about urban height restrictions that ultimately led to the Height of Buildings Act 1912. Financed in part by solicitor and future federal MP Walter Marks, who named the building after his family property, Culwulla Chambers originally served as office space with ground-floor retail. Today it remains a commercial building housing businesses and legal professionals, with approximately 20 barristers practising across various jurisdictions within its walls.
Architect
Movement
- Type
- commercial building
- Place
- New South Wales, Australia
This building on
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Location