Innovative services design facilitates grand hotel in Sydney’s heritage district

Sandstone Buildings

When Pontiac Land Group wanted to transform their heritage Lands and Education buildings into a hospitality and mixed-use precinct, they called on our team and our integrated and sympathetic design approach to revitalize these beautiful buildings in central Sydney. Our challenge? To meet the complex requirements of the redevelopment while minimizing impact on the architecture and façade of the two structures—which extend over two blocks and are linked by an underground tunnel.

Limiting construction impact and excavation allowed for many of the heritage features to remain intact both internally and externally. We also negotiated with the authority for the power supply to be provided from adjacent buildings and investigated to determine where existing water, sewer, stormwater, and gas connections could be reused.

Our mechanical design connects to a centralized system through the services tunnel, and the fire protection system is serviced via a single, shared water and boosting source. The acoustic treatment of services is tailored around the architecture to achieve performance and comfort targets, and our lighting scheme celebrates the beautiful features in circulation areas. Our teams have also contributed electrical, hydraulics, environmental, social, and governance (ESG), and fire engineering services.

The Education Building has been transformed into Capella Sydney, a five-star luxury hotel which has received the AHEAD Global Award for Hotel of the Year 2023, along with nine other awards. The Lands Building is being reimagined as a multi-level mixed-use facility, featuring high-end retail, food and beverage, spaces for functions and co-working, and a rooftop bar overlooking Sydney Harbour.

When complete, this project will preserve and celebrate the heritage of Sydney’s iconic Sandstone buildings while boosting tourism through adaptive reuse.