Crystalbrook Collection has unveiled concept designs of how the interior of its five-star Kingsley hotel will look when it opens next year.
The luxury hospitality company appears to be, unsurprisingly, sparing no expense on the design and fit-out of the 130-room hotel and its associated facilities.
Geoff York, the company's interim CEO and group director of hotels, said the redevelopment of the former Newcastle City Council administration building, led by local firm EJE Architecture, would pay homage to its brutalist 1970s architecture.
He said the proposed colour scheme would celebrate, rather than compete, with the positive masonry edifice of the existing structure.
Mr York said the hotel's interiors, designed by Suede Interior Design, made use of curves and rhythm to mimic the linear architecture.
The colour palate was inspired by the "black canary" - a reference to the region's significant coal mining history - with layers of different textures of ivories carried throughout the hotel, he said, creating a neutral palette broken up by hints of yellow of varying vibrant shades.
"We are so pleased to unveil the interiors for Kingsley," Mr York said.
"The hotel celebrates Newcastle's rich history whilst looking forward to what the emerging city has to offer.
"We are honoured to now be a part of Newcastle's cultural landscape."
Construction work to transform the "roundhouse" building has been in full swing in recent weeks with notable progress on the roof, where a six-metre glass addition is being built.
It will house a rooftop restaurant and bar that is being themed around Newcastle's olive groves.
The glass ceiling, combined with the colour palette, olive trees lining the spinal corridor and canary cages hanging above, will give guests the sense they are dining in the groves.
Crystalbrook Collection, Syrian billionaire Ghassan Aboud's hotel business, bought the roundhouse off Newcastle council for $16.5 million in late 2018.
Its $24 million plans to redevelop the site into a nine-storey hotel were approved last August after a series of spires proposed for the top of the building were scrapped for a sleeker look.
The "blades", as they were labelled, were deemed by the council's urban design committee to visually compete with the adjacent City Hall and its clock tower.
The company was involved in a legal dispute earlier this year with Subsidence Advisory NSW, which had ordered it to grout old mine workings under the building.
The Kingsley is expected to open in April. The name is a tribute to Newcastle's heritage and the city's earlier name of Kingston, dating back to 1804.
