[6][7] The NSW Government Architect's Office's Ken Woolley designed a 38-floor tower of composite concrete and steel with deep window recesses clad in black granite.

[8] Woolley's design accounted for the sun-exposure for such a tall building by including measures such as floor slabs projecting beyond the window line to make sunhoods, which were clad in bronze sheeting.

The lift lobby leading for the Premier's office floor was decorated by a double-sided oxidised bronze Coat of Arms of New South Wales by sculptor Bert Flugelman.

[12] The State Office Block nevertheless survived into the 1990s, with heated discussion continuing over its future, but it was "considered old enough to be outdated, yet too young to be of heritage value" and was sold to Lendlease for demolition in 1996, to be replaced by the Renzo Piano-designed Aurora Place.

[14] Ken Woolley, who had led a bid to have the existing building converted into a hotel, advocated in vain for its conservation, noting in a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald in August 1996: Commercially, it may make sense to demolish the State Office Block.

[18] A sculpture by Margel Hinder, "Growth Forms" (1959), that had been placed in the forecourt of the Office Block in 1980 when its original site was demolished, was again moved as a result of demolition, and is now on display in the UTS Tower following acquisition by the university and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.