Candalepas and Associates has won a design excellence competition for a “slim and elegant” hotel and apartment tower in central Sydney.
To be located at 525 George Street, the tower will comprise 292 hotel rooms, a gymnasium, outdoor pool and 115 residential apartments. It will replace the historic cinema which as occupied the site since 1903.
The proposal includes a six-storey podium that will accommodate a cinema, hotel lobby, conference facilities, a restaurant and retail tenancies.
Proposed tower at 525 George Street, Sydney, by Candalepas Associates.
Image: Darc Studio
“The proposal is based around a building form with elegant vertical proportions, contextual linkages as well as a number of pleasing aesthetic offerings including atrium voids and striking public street front entrances,” the architects said in a design statement.
“The tower, with its dominant vertical proportions, creates an elegant form on the city skyline. The podium form makes a strong and articulated contextual connection to its adjacent neighbours.
“The material palette […] is formulated around both long lasting and natural materials. This is seen to compliment the adjacent masonry heritage buildings as well as speak to more lasting and substantive human values.”
Candalepas Associates created a stage one concept design for the project, and after its approval, the proponent held a three-way invited competition with the practice along with two others: Andrew Burges Architects and John Wardle Architects.
Proposed tower at 525 George Street, Sydney, by Candalepas Associates.
Image: Darc Studio
The competition selection panel found the Candalepas Associates scheme “had the ambition of creating a sense of ‘repose’ which was rendered powerfully and appropriately in the reading of the tower as a subtle, elegant presence on the city skyline,” the Competitive Design Alternatives Report reads.
“The tower demonstrated a sophisticated reading over the multiple constraints at play and resolved them in a manner that liberated the architectural form.
“The selection panel found the tower component of this scheme to be the best resolved of the entries and to be the greatest strength of the scheme.”
A development application for the stage two assessment has been submitted to the City of Sydney.
