This vibrant, mixed-use precinct is built on a deep connection to community and place, reawakening the southern end of Surry Hills, where Cleveland Street marks the Redfern border.
Spanning a 12,244sqm site, the precinct has been divided into seven ‘villages’, realised as residential apartments, terrace houses, retail offerings, a boutique luxury hotel, commercial, heritage and public space. As Principal Architect, SJB has led the architectural design from concept to completion, ensuring strategic urban renewal metrics have been considered throughout.
The residential component of the development comprises four multi-residential buildings. With a strong language of robust brick and organic forms, the four buildings sit in unison and speak to the brickwork of the adjacent NSW Mounted Police headquarters. The design incorporates high quality private spaces as well as a shared green communal space for community lunches, gardening, yoga or quiet contemplation.
The masterplan addresses the need for variation in residential typology on the city fringe and includes 6 terrace houses forming the street edge of Marriott Street. The terrace houses, which share the same material palette as the multi-residential buildings, contribute to maintaining the character of the street and provide a cohesive continuation of the precinct’s residential design language.
Wunderlich Lane connects Baptist and Marriott Street, housing several retail offerings including Coles and Harris Farm with a variety of other flexible tenancies set for the highly trafficked spaces fronting Cleveland and Baptist Street. Situated at the heart of the precinct in the newly opened restaurant, Olympus, is a large oculus, punching light into the second level of retail and providing visual connection to the precinct’s largest hospitality offering, The EVE Hotel Sydney.
The EVE offers a boutique luxury 102-room experience with amenities that include a rooftop pool and bar. The design emphasises a seamless interface between the architecture of the hotel and the broader precinct, creating connection through open transitional spaces, continuity of materials, framed views of the surrounding greenery and a communal rooftop space for guests with expansive views over the precinct and beyond.
Situated on the ground floor at The EVE is Bar Julius, the design of which layers classic materials with a playful, modern twist, creating a colourful, kaleidoscopic space that feels both timeless and full of energy.
A mass timber construction commercial building takes pride of place on the corner of Cleveland and Marriott Street. Its speckled grey brickwork and arched windows provide the first glimpse of the precinct when travelling west on Cleveland Street, creating a clear marker of place and a strong visual identity for the village.
On the opposite corner of the site (Cleveland and Baptist Street), Studio Prineas has carried out thoughtful design to incorporate the pre-existing Victorian era brick façade of the former Bank of NSW building. Both the heritage façade and structure have been carefully and purposely maintained to house two food and beverage offerings (Island Radio on the ground and Baptist Street Rec Club above), maintaining a connection to past and a respect for place.
