The renovated Quay Quarter Tower by 3XN and BVN has been announced as a finalist for this year’s edition of Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, making it the first-ever building to be nominated for the award.
Situated in Sydney‘s Circular Quay, the 206-metre-tall skyscraper, originally completed in 1976 as the AMP Center, was refurbished in 2022 by Danish architecture studio 3XN and Australian studio BVN.
It is one of three finalists in the Build a Waste-Free World category of the Earthshot Prize, which was founded by the British royal in 2020 to recognise innovative solutions that address the world’s most pressing environmental challenges.
The retrofit of Quay Quarter Tower’s angular glass form was praised by the awarding body for its “commercially viable and scalable solution to decarbonising the built environment”.
The Quay Quarter Tower in Sydney is a finalist for the 2025 Earthshot Prize
“Quay Quarter Tower is the world’s first fully ‘upcycled skyscraper’ and the most comprehensive building transformation ever attempted at this scale,” it said.
“It proves that retrofitting buildings that have stood for decades offers a commercially viable and scalable solution to decarbonising the built environment.”
This marks the first time that a building has been nominated for the prize.
“We see it as a reflection of both architecture’s impact and its potential,” 3XN told Dezeen.
Rather than demolishing the tower, 3XN and BVN sought to renew its existing structure in a strategy that saved more than 12,000 tonnes of embodied carbon, according to the studio.
The strategy also saw 65 per cent of the skyscraper’s original structure and 95 per cent of its core retained.
The tower’s retrofit is hoped to serve as a “blueprint” for more sustainable approaches to development around the world, says 3XN.
“The demolition cycle is one of the greatest threats to our global climate goals,” partner at 3XN Fred Holt said. “Quay Quarter Tower proves that transformation at significant scale is possible and, critically, commercially viable.”
“We hope that our approach can help redefine urban development, offering a blueprint to meet low-carbon ambitions as our cities worldwide continue to grow.”
The skyscraper was praised for offering a “commercially viable” solution to decarbonising the industry
Now in its fifth year, this year’s Earthshot Prize marks a halfway-point in the award’s ten-year programme set out by Prince William.
“As we reach the halfway point of the Earthshot decade, I am truly inspired by this year’s finalists, which embody the urgent optimism sitting right at the heart of our mission,” the prince said.
“In just five years, The Earthshot Prize has shown that the answers to our planet’s greatest challenges not only already exist, but that they are firmly within our grasp.”
Selected from nearly 2,500 nominees, The Quay Quarter Tower is one of 15 finalists vying for awards across five categories. One winner from each category will be selected by Prince William alongside members of the award council and announced on 5 November 2025.
The building was previously named Best Tall Building Worldwide by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.
Previous winners of the annual Earthshot Prize include a technology designed to capture and convert waste heat into usable and clean electricity, and a dissolvable binder for EV batteries.
The photography is by Adam Mørk.
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