A by Adina, Sydney

A By Adina Hotel is a 26-storey 194-room flagship hotel on a very small and challenging yet very prominent island site in the heart of the Sydney CBD. The winning competition entry went outside planning controls with a solution that provides pedestrians with more daylight, sky views and vistas to the iconic Australia Square tower through a slender, elegant and geometrically pure glass tower; setback and held within streetwall podium screens. The glass tower is sheathed in innovative glass with an integrated fabric mesh microshade which reduces solar load without reducing floor area; provides tower rooms with expansive outlook and daytime privacy; and gives the tower a distinctive metallic sheen. A streetwall screen of deep folded aluminium fins in a custom textured powdercoat provide privacy to podium rooms; respond to the ornate masonry character of adjacent heritage and give an intimate, human scaled character to the street. At the footpath a procession of tall columns in fluted precast concrete and sandstone frame oversize shopfronts and lead to a 3-storey high entry colonnade between a bronzed tube screen and a water cascade. Despite the limited footprint, three street frontages and a steep crossfall are manipulated to provide a memorable guest arrival while achieving intense retail activation over 3 levels as well as accommodating hotel service access, a substation, mechanical vents and all fire and life safety installations. The old northern service lane is regraded and reinvented as a sun-drenched mini-plaza enlivened by bright and engaging public artwork and activated by a ground floor restaurant. The crown of the tall and slender tower houses the hotel public and social spaces – reception, restaurant, bar, pool and gym – in one contiguous, convergent, multilevel and 15M tall space wrapped around the central core with outlook to city roofscapes, monuments and harbour glimpses in every direction. A prefabricated crown façade and glass roof integrating steel and unitised framing maximises space within the approved envelope as well as light and outlook. Computational modelling of the crown validated the natural ventilation system for shoulder seasons, efficacy of the mircoshading glass to minimise cooling loads and optimised glare control blinds. Delivering an ambitious brief on a small site required an inventive and efficient structure and services strategy – consolidated and rationalised basement and rooftop plant; stepped column offsets instead of transfers and a compact core. Efficient guest floor planning provides 194 rooms over 19 floors. Designed in collaboration with CARR, the compact room interiors use generous full width banquettes to reduce clutter, increase spaciousness and embody a contemporary city hotel character. Materials and detailing throughout are high quality in a restrained and consistent palette. Key elements of experience, orientation and circulation are highly crafted - the colonnade, lift car, lobby desk, stair and crown are finished in warm bronze coloured metals. The crown - illuminated from dusk with LEDs concealed in shiplapped cladding - provides soft and intimate evening light to the memorable sky lobby and creates a distinctive presence on George St landmarking this latest Sydney institution.