RAA Place (Westpac House)

RAA Place is a 31-storey office tower at 91 King William Street in Adelaide, South Australia. It reaches 132 metres at its roof, with each floor about 4.2 metres high. From 1988 until 2019 it was the tallest building in Adelaide.

It was built as the State Bank Building for the State Bank of South Australia, and it has changed names several times since. After the bank collapsed in 1991 it was renamed the BankSA Building, then Santos House from 1997, then Westpac House from 2007 to 2022. In April 2023, after the Royal Automobile Association took floors and signage rights, it became RAA Place. Its colour-changing sign shows the new name on the western side.

A tower with many names

Buildings are often named after the companies that rent them, so their names change when tenants move. This tower started as the State Bank Building in 1988. The bank failed in 1991, and the name changed to BankSA. In 1997 it was bought by Santos, an energy company, and in 2007 Westpac moved in. When Westpac left in 2022, the Royal Automobile Association took naming rights, and the signs were replaced.

Lights for holidays

Before and during big holidays the building's windows were selectively lit to form pictures. They showed a white cross for Easter and Anzac Day, and a tree in fluorescent green at Christmas. In 2023 a new RAA sign went up on the western side. Unlike the older signs, this one can change colour, so it is no longer fixed to the yellow and white of the RAA logo.

On the globe

The model shows a flat-topped slab of red granite with a grid of pale-green windows.