Singapore’s Capella Hotel Group has announced the opening of a five-star hotel in a listed 20th-century Sydney building.
The hotel occupies a block of downtown Sydney, formerly occupied by Australia’s departments of Education and Agriculture. UK architect Make’s design adds three floors to the eight-storey building, creating a hotel with 192 rooms, ranging from 40 sq m to 235 sq m suites.
There will also be three restaurants and a pool, spa and wellness centre on the sixth floor.
The glass-covered extension is set back to allow space for the original sandstone structure to show.
Michelle Evans, Make’s project architect, said: “Opening the building up to the public was key to the design vision. On the ground floor, we designed the arrival sequence to play with scale and invite the public into the previously inaccessible building, taking guests from the beautifully restored heritage entrance at Farrer Place through to the double-height reception evoking the openness of the original atrium.”
