The slope down to Elizabeth Macarthur Bay was busy even before CSR arrived: a timber yard and a tin smelter used the land from at least the 1850s.
When CSR built the sugar refinery in the 1870s, this land was vital: with access to the Bay and to the new Harris Street, it performed mundane but essential functions. The northern section, next to the boiler station (now The Elizabeth), was used for Engineering Stores. The southern section, known as Shipping Stores, provided access for goods entering and leaving the complex, and housed CSR’s subcontractors.
Lend Lease retained the structure of the northern (Engineering Stores) section, refitting its rooms for commercial tenants.
When Bowman Street was widened into a thoroughfare, the Shipping Stores were demolished and replaced by a new structure for commercial tenants. The Glassworks Building is now known as the Nokia Building.
Architects and designers worked with Nokia to fit out a purpose-built structure.