Capella Sydney

Farrer Place, at the eastern end of Bridge Street, is where the sandstone of old Sydney meets the towers of the financial district. Capella Sydney occupies the former Department of Education building there, a Beaux-Arts block begun in 1912 under the New South Wales Government Architect George McRae and finished only in 1930. The hotel opened in March 2023 after a conversion that took the best part of five years.

History

The Education Building was the last of the big sandstone government offices of Sydney and the slowest to build. Its first wing went up before the First World War; the Bridge Street frontage was completed in 1930 in the same Pyrmont sandstone used on the earlier blocks. The schools of New South Wales were administered from these rooms for the better part of a century. In 2015 the state government sold the building, together with its neighbour across the street, to Pontiac Land Group of Singapore as part of the Sandstone Precinct deal. Pontiac Land owns the Capella brand, and the hotel conversion followed.

Architecture and design

Make Architects led the conversion and BAR Studio of Melbourne designed the interiors. The listed facades, the stone staircases and much of the decorative plasterwork were kept. A new volume was added above the original roofline to house the pool, the spa and the upper floors of rooms, set back so that it reads lightly from the street. Inside, the palette is quiet: pale Australian timbers, bronze, stone and a collection of contemporary Australian art. The centrepiece is Aperture, a lounge under a glass roof in what was once an open courtyard, where afternoon tea and evening drinks are served.

Rooms and suites

The 192 rooms and suites are large by the standards of Sydney hotels, with high ceilings in the heritage floors and tall windows onto Farrer Place or the inner courtyard. Bathrooms are in stone, with separate baths and showers in most categories. The suites on the upper floors have views over the rooftops towards the harbour.

Dining

Brasserie 1930, named for the year the building was finished, is the main restaurant, serving a wood-fired menu of Australian produce at breakfast, lunch and dinner. McRae Bar, named for the architect, is a cocktail bar off the lobby with a long marble counter. Aperture, in the atrium, is the all-day lounge.

Wellness

Auriga Spa occupies the new upper level with treatment rooms, a sauna and steam room, a fitness suite and a 20-metre indoor pool under a vaulted ceiling. The spa is the only one of its kind in a Capella property outside Asia.

Weddings and events

The hotel keeps its event rooms small by the standards of the city. A sequence of salons and private dining rooms on the lower floors suits boardroom meetings, product launches and seated dinners for a few dozen guests rather than conventions. Weddings are held in the atrium and in the private rooms, with the heritage staircases used for photographs.

Location

The hotel stands between Bridge Street and the Royal Botanic Garden, in the oldest quarter of the central business district. Circular Quay, the Opera House and the ferry wharves are a few minutes on foot; Martin Place station is the nearest railway stop. Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport is about 25 minutes by car. Of the luxury hotels in Sydney, this is the one closest to the Garden and the only one in a listed government building of this scale.