Inside One Circular Quay and the best Sydney Harbour views
It has surpassed $1bn in sales, but the European-born interior designer of Sydney’s One Circular Quay eschews the luxury label and says the view is the main star.
Unusually, the European-born interior designer of Lendlease’s One Circular Quay apartment tower, Daniel Goldberg, says the word luxury is not a descriptor he particularly favours.
“We don’t really like the word luxury; it is used everywhere,” the German-trained architect tells Mansion on a flying visit from his London HQ to Sydney, where he’s spent the past 10 months on the interiors of the sumptuous 158-unit apartment tower overlooking the city’s thriving Circular Quay. “It is used in so many ways it is meaningless. Everything is branded ‘luxury’ and it is overused,” Goldberg says.
Designed by the late award-winning architect Kerry Hill, more than 50 per cent of the apartments have now sold, surpassing more than $1bn in sales, with the majority of buyers local Sydneysiders.
The 58-level apartment tower overlooking Circular Quay, the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge and out to Sydney Heads is much less about luxury and more about understated elegance, and uses natural materials, says Goldberg, who has also worked on The Residences in London’s The Shard Tower.
“I really think this is about making interiors relevant to where they are, both to the architecture, to the building they’re in, but in the wider context, to the climate, the culture, and the city,” Goldberg says.
“For us that was the starting point to create something that is really not random. It cannot be found anywhere in the world… our starting point was, what is the essence, what is the essential essence, of Circular Quay?’’
For a start, he concedes that the apartments – part of a $3 billion development Lendlease is undertaking with Mitsubishi Estate and offered with three different colour palettes — are definitely influenced and inspired by the view.
For Goldberg, it’s important that the palette captures the “amazing Sydney late afternoon golden sunlight that you get. It’s just incredible. You get it in Sydney and California and places like that.”
And the buyer should choose their colour scheme depending on which way their apartment faces, whether they are buying one of the two-, three- or four-bedroom apartments, or one of the six-bedroom sub penthouses.
Or indeed the penthouse, which takes up the top three levels of the building, has its own private elevator and sports five bedrooms.
The penthouse will also have four north-facing private winter gardens, as well as a rooftop swimming pool and terrace, floor-to-ceiling windows, and double-height spaces facing northwards. It could fetch $140m in line with similar Sydney penthouses while remaining smaller apartments start from $11m.
Goldberg says he is evenly split between the three palettes. “Trying to choose my favourite is like trying to pick my favourite kid,” he says.
The Aero palette is about the sky and as such features Portuguese limestone flooring combined with lightly stained European oak. “It’s the lightest and freshest,” he says.
The Aqua palette is about the water. There’s grey limestone flooring, dark-stained wood and marble accents.
The Terra palette is about the earth, and draws its themes from the lush vegetation surrounding the tower, including the harbour basin and The Royal Botanic Garden.
Goldberg says all three palettes are equally popular with buyers and a decision as to which colour scheme they choose can often come down to where their apartment is located within the tower, the particular light it attracts.
“With the west aspect, that would suit the Terra palette, with its warm timber tones and the golden veins in the stones. That makes sense.” But Goldberg is particularly mindful that Sydney Harbour is the highlight of the building’s design.
Pointing to the body of water, he says: “That’s the main act out there, this is the supporting act. None of these interiors are competing with the view,” he said.
“If you think of what Circular Quay stands for, it’s an arrival point. It’s a sense of possibility, it’s magical, it’s enchanting. You can’t touch it. It’s a little bit of magic. People come in by ferry, or they might come in from other parts of the world by cruise ship.
“It’s the front door to the city, the gateway to the continent. That’s really inspiring. That’s a key component.”
Every apartment has a winter garden, effectively a sheltered balcony, and they will all feature Wolf and Sub-Zero kitchen appliances, which are considered the best on the market.
Lendlease and Goldberg’s State of Craft group are still finalising the designs for the six full-floor sub-penthouses, which will offer different levels of finish to the rest of the building.
The sub-penthouses, located on levels 50-55 of the building, will have more than 500sq m of internal living space apiece.
“They’ve definitely been influenced and inspired by the view,” says Goldberg, who is meeting apartment purchasers as well as the tower’s selling agents.
“We think about the physical requirements of the people who will use the space in these apartment but also address the emotional needs, and we are creating a sense of shelter and protection in the home,” he adds.
Marketing agent Justin Brown, chairman of CBRE Residential Projects, says that One Circular Quay’s sales success has been an outstanding example of where local high-net-worth purchasers have resonated with Australia’s premier location.
“We have been able to provide a high level of comfort on the finishes, appliances, services and delivery of the end product,” Brown said.
“Circular Quay is a finite market with limited future product and One Circular Quay is by far the best location, sitting between both of Australia’s icons, the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, while facing north. This has led purchasers to readily buy at benchmark pricing as the opportunity will not be repeated.”
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