James Packer, renowned billionaire businessman and hotelier, has revealed the designs for his upcoming hotel/resort project, The Crown Sydney Hotel, which is slated to be a part of the $6.21 billion Barangaroo Project.
Packer had hosted an international design competition to solicit building ideas from various architecture firms. He had also commissioned a panel of judges to select the best designs from the submitted ones, reports The West Australian.
Three designs have made it to the final round .The finalist design firms include Kohn Pedersen Fox, Wilkinson Eyre Architects and Adrian Smith and Gordon Gill. The judges will announce the winning design later in May.
Packer's company, Crown Limited, stated that the hotel complex would be at least 235 meters tall with 350 guest rooms, a rooftop pool, four restaurants and ample luxury retail facilities, reports Border Mail.
Check out the designs submitted by the three finalists, here.
"These designs are truly inspiring; they literally take your breath away. With these sorts of designs, Crown Sydney will be the most iconic building constructed in this city since the Opera House. Whoever ends up winning - it's guaranteed to be a masterpiece," Packer said to Perth Now.
The announcement comes weeks ahead of the government's approval for the go- ahead for the project. The final design will require planning approval from the NSW Department of Planning and Infrastructure and from the Barangaroo Delivery Authority too, reports Yahoo.
Apparently, Crown Limited has been pushing to increase the building height from the allowed 170 meters to at least 250 meters. It has also urged the government to grant it a Casino license.
However, Crown's arch rival, Echo Entertainment has objected to it as the company itself launched a bid to extend the current expiry date of its casino hotel, The Star. If the government favors the latter, Crown's building plans may be put on hold as the state only allows for one casino license.
According to Border Mail:
"If the government favours Echo's pitch, it would scuttle Mr Packer's plans as he has argued the hotel is only financially viable with the revenue that a second Sydney casino would deliver."
The Barangaroo Project
The $6 billion Barangaroo South Development Project was sanctioned by the government of Australia in 2010. The project is set to be a crucial development in the western side of Sydney's Central Business District (CBD). It will be a 22 hectare space comprising of commercial, residential and retail space. Touted as a sustainable project it will feature energy saving modern infrastructure. All the buildings in the area will be on a 99-year lease.
Check out the complete master plan of Barangaroo South Development, here.
