In case you didn't hear, a new $500-million Ritz-Carlton hotel and residential tower complex is coming to the Sydney waterfront. It will be part of The Star Sydney, the second largest casino in Australia, and overlook Darling Harbour.
Three of the country's top architectural firms—Grimshaw Architects, BVN and FJMT—have been tasked with the challenge of coming up with the new design for the luxury development.
The three have reportedly put forward their designs and the best one will be chosen by a five-person design review panel at the end of October.
The design brief: Design a hotel with 220 premium rooms and 150 residences, with an additional two stories on top of the casino itself to be built, raising the number of bars and restaurants increase from 24 to 50.
"We're proud to be working with The Ritz-Carlton and our partners Chow Tai Fook and Far East on delivering a six-star hotel, and associated developments that will further enhance Sydney as a compelling destination," The Star Entertainment Group's CEO & Managing Director Matt Bekier told Daily Mail Australia. "Our development concept will take The Star's room inventory to around 1000, bring The Ritz-Carlton back to Sydney and allow us to really enhance and increase our contribution to Sydney's tourism offering. Sydney needs more quality hotels, and exciting entertainment and hospitality infrastructure if it's to capitalize on the tourism opportunity which will be a long term growth driver for Australia."
The development is said to rival James Packer's $2-billion Crown casino and hotel complex.
Here are the three proposed designs/renderings:
