The new administration building by Grimshaw heralds a new era for Australia’s oldest university, incarnating a spirit of openness and collaboration. F23 is an embodiment of cohesion and an efficient operations facility. Accommodating heads of eleven academic departments and their staff, the building is predicated on a model of transparency grounded in a sense of gravitas.

The building collocates the university’s Senior Executive teams and associated administration functions from across the site, to become the campus' new visible presence to the world.

The F23 Administration Building is located at the gateway of the Camperdown and Darlington campuses of the University of Sydney, occupying a prominent and important site at the entry to Eastern Avenue from City Road. Over the last ten years Eastern Avenue has been redefined as the primary gateway to the university. It contains some of the university's oldest and most prestigious buildings. Given the importance of its function, the new F23 Administration Building has been designed to present an appropriate civic presence to the university whilst being sympathetic to its context.

A civic structure of independent but linked communities, circulation is celebrated via a suspended timber casement staircase and a freestanding, transparent glass lift shaft. Breakout zones wrap around the atrium. Designed to accommodate some 520 staff, the building feels animated but never overcrowded.

A stoic, glass, steel and sandstone block is topped by an elegantly cantilevered roof. Balconies emphasise the grand horizontal plane. The ground floor dissolves into the public domain, in dialogue with the adjacent historical structures and passing pedestrian traffic.

In addition to serving as the building’s lobby, the ground floor will contain public exhibition, symposium, event space and a café, all of which are critical in establishing the community element to the project.

The building has been configured with high glazed façades creating transparency and visibility into the interior that will not only promote awareness of the exhibitions and events, but also encourage a greater degree of connectivity to Eastern Avenue.