Designed by Sydney architects HE Ross and H Ruskin-Rowe, the Government Savings Bank of New South Wales building was an unusual construction. Its structural skeleton used 95,000 tonnes of concrete to support 11 storeys, towering 60 metres above Castlereagh Street and 45 metres above Elizabeth Street. It had the columns and scrolls of a classical building and boasted a new colour scheme for Sydney. Deep red granite covered its face and its cornices were made from terracotta.