I concentrated on location when choosing a hotel for my three-day visit to Sydney, Australia. When I came across The Grace Sydney, I had no idea I had found an Art Deco gem.
The Grace Building is an easy walk to Circle Quay, the heart of the city’s activities. The heritage-listed Federation Skyscraper Gothic building, located on York Street in the central business district, houses a bar, hotel, cafe, and restaurant.
After checking in and settling in my spacious room, I headed out again with my camera to photograph some of the features of this historic location.
Designed by Morrow and Gordon and built by Kell & Rigby in the late 1920s, it was opened in 1930 as the headquarters of the Grace Brothers, the Australian department store magnates.
The first two stories were a department store. The remaining stories intended to provide rental office accommodation for importers and other firms engaged in the soft goods trade.
The neo-Gothic Tribune Tower in Chicago inspired it—the headquarters of the Chicago Tribune.
Nearly a century old, the Grace Building has served various purposes since its opening; it was sublet to the Australian Commonwealth government in the early 1940s and later became the Sydney headquarters of the U.S. armed forces under General Douglas MacArthur during the Pacific War. After World War II, it continued government administration purposes.
Extensive renovation and restoration during the 1990s resulted in the return of many of the building’s original features, including light fittings, lifts, stairwells, high pressed-metal ceilings, marble floors, wide hallways, and elegant decorative ironwork. The Grace Building was listed on the Register of the National Estate in 1980 and placed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register in 1999.
The building, purchased for redevelopment in 1995, now operates as a luxury hotel known as “the Grace Sydney.”
Even if you don’t stay at Grace Sydney, you can enjoy a meal or a drink at one of the restaurants or stop by and admire the lobby and its attention to detail.
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