TOWER ‘DESIGNED TO LOOK LIKE BURLEIGH HEADLAND’

ONE of the Gold Coast’s most prolific developers has unveiled plans for a new tower with a design directly inspired by Burleigh Headland.

Spyre Group has lodged plans with council for an 18-storey building (pictured) on the Gold Coast Highway, backing onto the $400m Mondrian Hotel site and directly across the road from Burleigh State School.

Documents filed with council reveal the towers’ design came directly from Burleigh’s most famous natural landmark.

“Taking inspiration from the (Jellurgual) Burleigh headland, the protective dense vegetation of the rainforest and the filtered views is reflected in the building’s plan,” the report reads. “The facade forms take shape from overlays of the beautiful lophostem confertus (brush box) found in the forest at the waters edge.”

It is the latest in a string of Gold Coast tower designs which have drawn inspiration from unexpected sources.

In 2016, Sydney developer Winten Property Group filed plans for a $100m silver, 47-storey hotel and residential project in the heart of Main Beach was inspired by the work of famed early 20th century architect Hugh Ferriss and had parallels to the 1982 film Blade Runner to represent “a notion of a utopian city of the future”.

In 2018, developer David Calvisi filed plans for his Norfolk and Luna towers on Burleigh’s Goodwin Terrance which drew inspiration from pine cones. In 2019, Andrews Projects pitched an 18-storey Broadbeach tower inspired by a sea shell. In 2021, Quahlee Property filed plans for a nine-storey beachfront tower in central Palm Beach with a design inspired by a clam shell.