[1][2] In its new company headquarters, Qantas wished to project a progressive image with the use of the latest imported curtain wall technology combined with Australian materials such as granite, marble and a variety of timbers.

These ideas form the mainstream of architectural modernism, and are characterised by a value placed upon clarity, rationality, honesty, efficiency, functionality and technology.

Qantas House (completed 1957), with its sweeping curtain wall attached to a reinforced concrete frame, is therefore an early example of the influence of this contemporary American technology and aesthetic in Australia.

Its form broke from the standard flat facade of most contemporary office buildings with its sweeping glass wall and dramatic cantilevered entry awning (now lost).

[2] Taylor also states that, at their most progressive, "the new office blocks principally were ree-standing or virtually so, and by 1957 Australia could boast designs as aesthetically and technologically advanced as any outside America, and not far behind developments there.

An interesting hybrid of infill and freestanding solutions occurred in response to certain sites, notably corner locations, where innovative buildings appear to strive to break free of the constraints of the physical restrictions.

[2] Qantas House is distinguished by its graceful, segmented, curved facade which consists of a 46m high, double glazed curtain wall of green glass with enamelled blue-green steel spandrel panels.

Qantas House is still a distinctive feature of Chifley Square and its curved form provides a welcome pedestrian area at the front of the building.

On the facade, the volume of this space is differentiated from the upper levels of the building by the use of dark green and black polished granite cladding and by the large, uninterrupted panels of glazing set in bronze frames.

The eleven storeys of the middle section of the facade are characterised by the repetitive pattern of the smaller aluminium-framed curtain wall panels.

At the northern end of the building is a full height sandstone faced wall on which a vertical "Qantas Airways" sign was originally located.

The sandstone facing returns in a long band to form the top of the fagade composition, providing an exciting demarcation of the building against the sky.

In addition, the proportions of the fenestration of Qantas House's curtain wall panels and the steel framed windows of the WL building are similar.

[2] In successfully taking advantage of its corner site, Qantas House also forms an elegant termination to the long view northwards along Elizabeth Street.

The graceful double-curved facade is coherently ordered and its shape reflects and visually reinforces the implementation of a long-planned extension to Elizabeth Street.

It became the inspiration for the eventual completion of the ironically named, but no less significant, Chifley Square, modelled on a town planned scheme of some eighty years before.

The building is highly regarded by the people of Sydney for its inherent aesthetic qualities and its association with Qantas, an Australian corporate icon.

A well known and much loved city landmark, Qantas House is an icon of its time; a quintessential Sydney building that represents a brave future and a strong sense of history and of place.

It is important evidence of the rapid post-War growth in Qantas Empire Airways' international operations and in air travel generally.

The fulfilment of this town planning vision provides important evidence of the complex nature of such activity and the interaction between various levels of Government, professionals and land owners.

Qantas Empire Airways constructed the building as its first purpose-designed world headquarters, as an identifiable icon for its modern image, and was its sole occupant for twenty-five years.

The composition of its façade elements is coherently ordered, as is its curtain wall construction featuring aerofoil-shaped mullions, symbolically linking building and client, lustrous teal coloured spandrels and green-tinted glazing.

Qantas House is significant as a variation within the Post-War International style of architecture, representing some aspects of transition from interwar European modernism.

Qantas House is an important reference site for its early use of high-quality, curtain-walled technology and as a showcase for Australian building materials, including the granite and sandstone facing of the façade.

There is some potential for intact subsurface deposits to survive in the northwestern corner of the site (currently lightwell) as the amount of disturbance that has occurred in these areas is uncertain.

(This drain previously ran diagonally across the site but was removed during the construction of Qantas House and replaced by a modern ceramic drainpipe.

Qantas House is a rare and outstanding example of architectural design of the highest quality in the Australian context from the first phase of post-War, multi-storey commercial building construction in Australia in the period up to 1960.

Qantas House is a unique example in the Australian context of a curved, curtain wall building of this type and period.

This early technology is becoming increasingly rare with continual upgrading of buildings and the Qantas House facade is an excellent example of this type.

Qantas House is a fine example of early curtain-walled building technology in Australia, with an unconventional curved design.