The last couple of years have seen a slew of new hotels open in Surry Hills, and the latest in the Sydney suburb, on Riley Street, steps from Oxford Street, is ADGE Hotel and Residences, pronounced “Adge”.
Opening this August, the property will feature 93 hotel rooms, two dining venues and 12 existing two-bedroom apartments, each with wraparound balconies. When the full build is completed early next year, it’ll also include the former Cambridge Hotel, which sits behind the new structure. The two builds will be connected via a communal lobby.
“It was very important to blend new elements with the original design of the Cambridge,” says Alec Tzannes from Tzannes Architect. The architecture team collaborated with Team 2 Architects, as well as firm SJB for interiors, on the $65 million project.
Together, they worked to align elements — new and old — such as a new entryway and new dining venues with the hotel’s existing architecture. Tzannes says they were careful to only introduce new ideas that maintained the integrity of the hotel’s former identity and uplifted its offering in an appropriate manner.
The brief for the property? To re-position the Cambridge Hotel as an attractive, inner city hotel, appealing because of its design and location. He was also tasked with changing its presentation to the street.
“The dominant material used was brick,” he says. “We developed landscaped gardens within the brick elements to introduce an environment for local birdlife and to support biophilic design principles at an urban scale.”
Tzannes says he can’t choose a favourite corner in the hotel, but that he appreciates all of it, particularly when he’s in the laneway outside the building, experiencing how the architecture combines special brick detailing, landscape and how the hotel room’s windows are arranged.
Guests to ADGE are expected to be a mix of international, business and leisure travellers, as well as Surry Hills locals, booking for a staycation, says Paul Cundy, General Manager of the property.
“Due to us being just seconds away from Oxford Street, we are very much part of the LGBTQIA+ community and we look forward to welcoming and working with them,” says Cunday. “We’re not your average hotel — we’re a destination for adventurers and experience-seekers who want to immerse themselves in the vibrant and eclectic world of Surry Hills.”
The teams worked with local artists, designers and architects to bring the essence of the locale into the hotel. Guests will be greeted with a specially commissioned large-scale mural from Australian artist Adrian Hing at the entrance. An abstract sculpture of powder-coated, stainless steel and neon lights by artist Anna Varendorff sits outside the building.
When it comes to eating and drinking, hotel guests don’t have to go far, with two venues set to open when the hotel does, and a third, an Italian restaurant with a well-known, but yet-to-be-announced chef at its helm, set to open when the former Cambridge Hotel does.
For now, guests will get to choose between Korean fare from Soul Deli, decorated with retro furnishings, pink tiled tabletops and pale-yellow booths, and an intimate Japanese omakase restaurant. Called Raida Noda’s Chef Kitchen, it’ll be located in the hotel lobby and will only be able to seat eight at a time to give everyone enough space for a front-row seat around an open kitchen.
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