The Ritz-Carlton, The Star — Pyrmont

The Project

The proposed Ritz-Carlton at The Star was one of Sydney's most ambitious luxury hospitality projects, a sculptural tower above the Pyrmont entertainment precinct, housing a five-star hotel with sky bars, rooftop garden terraces, and panoramic restaurants overlooking Darling Harbour and Sydney Harbour. FJMT won the design competition in December 2016 with a spiralling glass form and a curved golden podium that would have become a genuine landmark on the city's western edge.

The Challenge

This was a project loaded with complexity from every angle. The tower's slender, curved form needed to minimise its visual impact from key harbour sightlines while maximising outward views for guests. We were working within one of Sydney's most politically scrutinised urban precincts, where the City of Sydney Council had strong objections to the tower's scale and its relationship to their planning controls for Pyrmont. The SSDA process, the standard NSW pathway for state significant development, added another layer of rigour to every design decision.

My Approach

I worked within FJMT's project team across the design development and SSDA documentation phases. My focus was on resolving the tower's architectural expression and preparing the documentation that underpinned both the competition submission and the approval pathway. The sky bar and restaurant floors were designed around full-height curved glazing, one of the most dramatic hospitality interiors proposed for Sydney at the time. Above those, rooftop terraces planted with mature trees created an unexpected landscape in the sky. Every element of the design had to be tested against the planning constraints and refined for the SSDA lodgement.

The Outcome

We won the competition, but the project never proceeded. Following sustained opposition from the City of Sydney Council, the state planning authority refused the application. It was a hard lesson in how design quality alone does not guarantee approval; political dynamics and planning politics can override even the strongest architectural propositions. That said, the project gave me direct experience of the SSDA process for major state significant development, and a deep understanding of the tension between state and local planning authorities on large-scale projects. Both of those lessons have shaped how I navigate complex approvals at Yaxley Studio today.