George McRae's 1912 Edwardian Baroque sandstone building spent most of its life housing NSW's Department of Education before Make Architects and BAR Studio transformed it into Capella Sydney, which opened in 2023 as one of the most considered heritage conversions Australia has produced. The warm honey-coloured sandstone facade — arched windows, ornamental cornicing, a confident civic presence on the corner near Circular Quay — gives nothing away about the four-storey contemporary rooftop extension above it, clad in fluted anodised metal fins that catch the light without competing with what McRae built. Inside, BAR Studio navigated the tension between preservation and contemporary hospitality with real intelligence. The reinstated central courtyard anchors the building's public life, while the 192 rooms and suites split between two distinct registers: heritage rooms in the original structure carry arched fanlight windows, black-framed joinery, and a palette of warm linen and dark timber that lets McRae's bones breathe; tower rooms in the extension open onto full-height glazing with Sydney's civic skyline laid out below. The bar strikes a different mood entirely — harlequin marble floors, brass-trimmed counters, and suspended feather-and-glass chandeliers bring a nocturnal theatricality that sits closer to a Mayfair members club than a hotel lobby. The spa pool, set beneath restored coffered ceilings and original arched colonnades, feels like a Roman bath that simply waited a century for the right brief.

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