From drab partitions to haute couture host: how a Sydney civic masterpiece was rescued | Culture
It was a grand old sandstone masterpiece where returning soldiers once crowded the marble corridors, anxiously awaiting the lottery draws that could change their lives.
Then the 20th century happened.
As bureaucracy expanded, the Victorian splendor of the interior of the Lands Department building on Sydney’s Bridge Street became riddled with claustrophobic cubicles. Office partitions emerged like weeds, hiding large Australian red cedar joinery behind chipboard. Ornate vaulted ceilings disappeared behind hanging acoustic tiles and humming fluorescent strips.
By the 1980s, the airy sandstone palace had become a cheerless maze of beige linoleum and gray metal filing cabinets. Unmaintained and technologically obsolete, the building had transformed from one of the architectural prides of the colony into a breezy white elephant.
But that’s not the end of the story. On Friday, the building that served as the engine room of New South Wales’ colonial expansion for more than a century received one of the top gongs at the 2026 National Trust (NSW) heritage awards.
Built in the 1870s and long closed to the public, the sandstone pile has been reimagined as a high-end lifestyle and cultural precinct in a major project with Hassell as lead design architect and Purcell Architecture ensuring expert heritage preservation.
The winning architectural study stripped away centuries-old utilitarian clutter to reveal grand internal spaces: the original three grand interior staircases and circular corridors.
The judging panel praised the meticulous restoration, which “respectfully preserves the building’s grand sandstone façade and intricate heritage interiors, while carefully introducing contemporary architectural elements that speak sympathetically to its rich past.”
“The project reawakened the building’s historic grandeur, unlocked public access to a beloved landmark and set the stage for vibrant new experiences.”
The project, along with the adjacent Department of Education building, is the final phase of the wider Sandstone District redevelopment.
Education bureaucrats from the second district moved into purpose-built offices in Parramatta in 2018, paving the way for the building to be transformed into an exclusive boutique hotel.
Its award-winning neighbor, now known as The Lands by Capella, partially opened earlier this year and this week served as a satellite host to Australian fashion week. When completed toward the end of this year, it will offer 10,000 square feet of luxury retail, dining and event spaces for weddings, galas and conferences.
Designed by Colonial Architect James Barnet (architect of Martin Place, Customs House and our Darlinghurst home, among others) and built between 1876 and 1892, the sandstone palace was once the center of the colony’s land administration, housing survey maps and land titles defining the province’s boundaries and real estate.
This was also where the cattle votes were held. For decades, hopeful selectmen filled the building’s grand halls, including many soldiers returning from both world wars and seeking a fresh start through troop settlement schemes. Thousands of people gathered in the marble corridors, waiting for their names to be drawn from the ballot box to secure a bush parcel distributed by the government.
The awards also recognized Urbis and the City of Sydney with a conservation award for the restoration of City Hall, one of Sydney’s most prominent Brutalist landmarks. The scale of the restoration project in itself was “hard to fathom”, the jury said.
And Hector Abrahams Architects was recognized for restoring the almost completely dilapidated 1920s Castlecrag house designed by Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahony Griffin.
White Bay Power Station’s entertainment venue won the indoor category.
More than 1,000 members of the public voted for the refurbished grand dining room of Katoomba’s Carrington hotel in the people’s choice award.
The President’s award went to GPG Architecture for the redevelopment of the Coolamon hotel, with National Trust (NSW) chief executive Bruce Pettman describing the five-year conservation project as a compelling testament to the cultural and economic impact of rural pubs in Australia.
