Inside the Chifley Tower Lighting Upgrade: 700+ Custom Panel Lights
Chifley Tower is one of Sydney's most recognisable commercial buildings. When Charter Hall engaged us to upgrade the office lighting across multiple floors, the brief was clear: premium quality, seamless integration with existing building management systems, and zero disruption to tenants.
This is the story of how we delivered.
The Brief
The existing fluorescent lighting across the office floors was aging. Tenants were reporting uneven light levels, the maintenance team was spending too much time on lamp replacements, and energy costs were climbing. Charter Hall wanted a complete LED retrofit that would modernise the lighting while integrating with the building's DALI control infrastructure.
The catch? Every floor had different ceiling configurations, and several tenants had specific aesthetic requirements for their spaces. Off-the-shelf panel lights weren't going to cut it.
Custom Panel Design
We developed a bespoke panel light specifically for Chifley Tower. The design needed to fit existing ceiling grid dimensions, deliver uniform light distribution across open-plan offices, achieve a colour temperature of 4000K with a CRI above 90, and integrate seamlessly with DALI wireless controls.
Our engineering team produced three iterations before landing on the final design. Each panel uses a custom edge-lit optical system that eliminates the "spotty" appearance common in cheaper panel lights, delivering truly uniform illumination across the entire surface.
Installation at Scale
Installing 700+ luminaires in an occupied commercial tower requires careful logistics. We worked floor by floor, completing each level during a single weekend to minimise tenant disruption.
Each floor took approximately 12 hours from start to commissioning. Our installation team would arrive Friday evening, remove the existing fluorescent fittings, install the new LED panels, connect and commission the DALI wireless controls, and have the floor fully operational before Monday morning.
The Results
The upgrade delivered a 58% reduction in lighting energy consumption across all retrofitted floors. Tenants reported noticeably better light quality, particularly in meeting rooms and at workstations. The building management team gained granular control over every luminaire through the DALI wireless system.
Eighteen months in, there have been zero panel failures — a testament to the quality of the components and the care taken during installation.
What We Learned
Large-scale commercial projects like Chifley Tower reinforce something we've known since 2008: the quality of the lighting design matters as much as the quality of the product. Getting the optics right, the colour temperature right, and the control integration right is what separates a good lighting upgrade from a great one.
Get in touch to discuss your commercial lighting project.