Capella Sydney

Capella Sydney opened on March 15, 2023, installing 192 rooms and suites inside the heritage-listed former Department of Education building on Bridge Street, the Singapore-based group's first Australian property. Developer Pontiac Land spent years restoring the sandstone landmark, working alongside Heritage NSW and the City of Sydney to convert a government office block into a five-star hotel without erasing the building it was.

The place

The hotel occupies a full city block on Bridge Street in the Sydney CBD, a few minutes on foot from Circular Quay, the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, and close to the financial and legal precincts that surround Macquarie Street. It is a location built on proximity rather than seclusion: guests are set down among the sandstone government buildings and colonial-era streetscape that define this end of the city, with the harbour foreshore, ferries and Royal Botanic Garden within easy reach. For a brand built on resort-style withdrawal, placing its Australian debut in the historic administrative heart of Sydney was a deliberate reversal, betting that the building itself would supply the sense of place a more remote setting usually provides.

The concept

The building dates to 1912, designed by Scottish-Australian architect George McRae for the state government and built in two stages roughly fifteen years apart — the northern wing for the Department of Education, the southern wing for the Department of Agriculture. Its Edwardian Baroque sandstone facade and steel-framed industrial windows survive largely intact. Make Architects led the restoration and reinstated a central courtyard that appeared in McRae's original drawings but was never built, while interiors were designed by BAR Studio, led by co-founder Stewart Robertson, with styling by Simone Haag and artwork curated by The Artling, including a piece by Indigenous artist Judy Watson. Rooms and suites, ranging from roughly 40 to 235 square metres for the top-tier Capella Suite, are spread across eight levels behind the heritage shell, with restored bronze doors, heritage marble stairs and brass-framed noticeboards kept as fixed reference points against the new interiors. The result is positioned as a heritage-conversion flagship rather than a conventional new-build luxury hotel — the first Capella property in Australia and a test of how a resort-focused brand translates into a landmark civic building in a dense city centre.

Dining & wellness

Food and beverage is anchored by three ground-level venues: Brasserie 1930, a modern Australian restaurant from Brent Savage and Nick Hildebrandt of the Bentley Restaurant Group, set in the building's former Department of Agriculture wing; Aperture, an all-day lounge built around a kinetic sculpture by Studio Drift; and McRae Bar, named for the building's original architect. On level six, Auriga Spa runs alongside a 20-metre heated indoor pool, a fitness studio and a yoga platform.