Harbourside: A new highrise will take pride of place in Darling Harbour

Peering across Sydney’s sparkling harbour, you may be struck by the beauty of the water views as well as the buildings that sit alongside it.

Only the architectural best of the best adorn the harbour’s edge, and soon, a new highrise will take pride of place in Darling Harbour.

Harbourside by Mirvac is a 48-level residential tower positioned just beyond Sydney’s CBD. The $2 billion precinct will encompass retail and restaurant offerings and more than 10,000 square metres of public open space, including a waterfront promenade and park.

The 263 apartments and penthouses at Harbourside have been created by a line-up of some of Australia’s most talented designers, including Jeff Copolov, a Design Institute of Australia hall-of-famer and multi-award winner.

Copolov, interior design director at Bates Smart, may be best known for some of Melbourne’s most prominent buildings, including Crown Casino and The Royal Children’s Hospital, but he is no stranger to the Harbour City.

With Harbourside, he was inspired by the history of the site and the beauty of sandstone, a material that perhaps best identifies Sydney.

“Sydney is renowned for this incredible sandstone, embankments and the sand schism sort of sedimentary rock and in fact that sandstone is used widely for many of our wonderful public buildings,” he says.

“So sandstone and the way it interacts with water, and the way that it relates to a pre-colonisation period where a significant number of Aboriginal tribes in the area came together to benefit from the food and the water and the fresh water that was in the area as well as the salt water. It was a place of life and growth.”

The warmth of sandstone can be found in the ochre colours of the benchtops, one of the colour palettes buyers can choose from, with the other leaning towards shades of green.

“So one colour scheme draws from the sandstone colorations, the ochres, and the sense of movement that you get in sandstone, you get in the key stones that we’re using as the signature stones,” Copolov says.

“The other colour scheme has a more soft, green, silver, grey set of colours that are brought into that colour scheme and therefore the feature island benches and the vanities carry that. The rest of the palettes – walls, floors and carpets – are more neutral, beautiful, soft tones that allow those heroic stones to really play a feature in the space.”

The architecture was a joint effort between Australia-founded firm Hassell and Norway-based studio Snøhetta.

Both companies were assisted by cultural design and research practice Djinjama and cultural heritage advisors Bila Heritage.

Liz Westgarth, Hassell’s global managing director, says this input informed the design of the architecture and landscaping, also created by Hassell.

“Our design was deeply inspired by indigenous narratives or as we say in the architecture world, connection to country, but also a really strong connection to nature itself,” she says.

“We are really keen to celebrate the place and the history of the place and tell narratives that honour the site’s rich history, but also design and deliver a very contextual and timeless response.”

Before colonisation, the site was known as Tumbalong, an abundant source of seafood for the Gadigal and Wangal peoples. This connection between the land and people has woven its way throughout not just the interior design but also the exteriors, with public art by Indigenous artists and heritage and cultural interpretation within the wayfinding signs.

Located near the Darling Harbour ferry, a light rail station and a five-minute walk from the city’s centre, Harbourside has location all stitched up. What’s more, the future Pyrmont Metro Station will be conveniently close once it opens in 2032.

“As we’ve been coming to market and engaging with market, it’s just been interesting where the inquiry has come from, from our purchasers all over Sydney, but people wanting that connectivity, that ability to walk into the CBD, the ability to jump on a metro train, the ability to jump on a light rail,” says Stuart Penklis, Mirvac’s chief executive of development.

“You actually don’t have a more connected site than what Harborside is and will be in the future.”

The position and harbourside views have captured the attention of rightsizers and upgraders, many of whom are living in city apartments, says Penklis.

Harbourside is scheduled for completion in 2027.

At a glance

Harbourside Residences

8 Darling Drive, Sydney

Architects: Snøhetta and Hassell

Developer: Mirvac

Interior designer: Bates Smart

Number of residences:

263 – 29 one-bed;
90 two-bed;
116 three-bed;
22 four-bed;
three sub-penthouses;
three penthouses.

Prices: One-bed mid-high $1m; two-bed (no car space) low-mid $2m; two-bed (one car space) low-mid $3m; three-bed (one car space) from $5m; three-bed (two car spaces) from $7m; penthouses POA

Completion estimate: 2027

Agent: Mirvac Residential 02 9080 8888

Open for inspection: By appointment at display suite, 65 Pirrama Road, Pyrmont