Opera Residences

Opera Residences is a landmark multi-residential building located at the south-eastern corner of Circular Quay, Sydney. This 20-storey building, above ground, completes the colonnade leading to the Sydney Opera House (SOH), providing active retail uses at grade and 104 premium apartments offering an exceptional level of amenity to residents, visitors and the general public. In one of the most significant precincts in the city, connecting Circular Quay to the SOH and Royal Botanic Gardens, it was essential that the architecture enhanced the distinct urban character of the location and contributed to the global identity of Sydney. At its base, Opera Residences’ grand colonnade includes three levels of retail and hospitality, completing the public walkway at East Circular Quay and reinvigorating a previously blighted waterfront area. The design includes landscape improvements and kiosk facilities in the adjacent areas of the public domain. The existing palm trees were successfully relocated to align with the geometry of the colonnade and provide more seating and a gathering space closer to the harbour promenade. A grand public stairway activated by retail uses, links Circular Quay to the Royal Botanic Gardens, completing the colonnade. To the south of the Opera Quays, a previously blighted and dangerous pocket of Circular Quay has been transformed as a discreet car entry and screen wall to disguise services alongside the elevated railway. Below ground, heritage listed service infrastructure has been retained adjacent to the multi-level car park for residents and visitors. Above the stone and concrete podium, the architecture of the apartments extends the street-wall of East Circular Quay and Macquarie Street and includes a lantern-like element of larger apartments that take full advantage of their position on the harbour. Opera Residences was conceived as a fluid form in stone, concrete and glass, generating a continuous sequence of experiences and interpretive expressive elements from all four facades. On Macquarie Street the architecture is calm and distinguished in contrast to the more expressive forms when viewed from the Cahill Expressway and Circular Quay. The soffit of the through site link articulates the structural forces of the transfer beams, reflecting Utzon’s expressed structural soffits at the SOH and contributing to this unique characteristic of Sydney architecture in a global context. The apartment divisions are disguised by glass bay windows to enhance the concept of fluidity and interior outlook using a combination of opaque, fritted and transparent glass bent to tight radii. The technology to shape the double and triple curved glass with imperceptible distortion may be a world first. The architecture is formed from a deep appreciation of the role and responsibility of new developments in the culturally significant precinct. Observing its proximity to the world heritage listed SOH and Fort Denison, Opera Residences provides exceptional levels of interior residential amenity whilst respectfully enriching the public domain at Circular Quay and on Macquarie Street.