Park Hyatt Sydney

The Sydney Opera House stands across a few hundred metres of water from the windows of Park Hyatt Sydney, and the ferries to Manly pass between. The hotel occupies the tip of Campbell's Cove in The Rocks, under the southern pylon of the Harbour Bridge, on a strip of waterfront that was warehouses and wharves until the 1980s. It is low, three storeys of sandstone and curved glass, and it keeps its head below the bridge.

History

Park Hyatt Sydney opened in 1990 on a site redeveloped from the old Campbell's stores on the cove. It was Hyatt's first Park Hyatt in Australia and quickly became the hotel to which visiting heads of state and film stars were sent, for the view and for the privacy of a small house. In 2011 Hyatt closed it for a year-long rebuilding of the interior; it reopened in February 2012 with the rooms redesigned, a new rooftop and pool, and the number of keys reduced to 155 to make the rooms larger. The hotel has been a fixture of Sydney's social calendar since, with its Opera House outlook on every New Year's Eve broadcast.

Architecture and design

The building was designed to follow the curve of the cove, with the rooms stepped so that most of them look at the Opera House or the bridge. The 2012 interiors are by BAR Studio of Melbourne: Australian timbers, limestone, sandstone, pale fabrics, and sliding glass walls that open on to balconies at the water. Art commissioned from Australian artists hangs in the lobby and corridors. The rooftop, added in the rebuilding, holds the outdoor pool, a terrace and the Sydney Suite.

Rooms and suites

There are 155 rooms and suites. Rooms are large by city standards, with a work desk, a walk-in dressing area and bathrooms with a freestanding tub and a separate rain shower; the Opera View rooms have balconies facing the Opera House, the Harbour View rooms look at the bridge. The suites add a sitting room and dining area, and the Sydney Suite on the roof has two bedrooms, a terrace with the Opera House view and a private butler. Every room has a butler on call.

Dining

The Dining Room is the hotel's restaurant, at the water's edge with the Opera House across the cove, serving modern Australian cooking built around seafood. The Living Room is the lounge for afternoon tea and drinks, and The Bar, with its terrace, is one of the best-placed places to drink in the city at dusk. Breakfast on the terrace with the ferries going past is the ritual guests remember.

Wellness

The Spa on the rooftop level has treatment rooms, a steam room and a fitness centre, and the outdoor pool with its terrace looks out across the harbour to the Opera House. The pool is heated and open all year.

Weddings and events

Park Hyatt Sydney hosts weddings, dinners and meetings on a small scale. The Harbour Room and the Guest House rooms on the ground floor face the water and take dinners and ceremonies of a few dozen to about a hundred; the rooftop terrace is used for receptions, and the Sydney Suite for private celebrations. There is no ballroom. Couples choose it for the setting and the photographs on the cove, and companies for board meetings with the harbour in the window.

Location

The address is 7 Hickson Road, The Rocks, at the end of Campbell's Cove. Circular Quay, with ferries, trains and the Opera House, is five minutes on foot along the waterfront; the Museum of Contemporary Art and the lanes of The Rocks are behind the hotel, and the Harbour Bridge climb starts a few streets away. Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport is 12 kilometres south, about 30 minutes by car. Of the luxury hotels in Sydney, this is the one at the water with nothing between it and the Opera House but the harbour.