The Ribbon, Sydney

The Ribbon
The Ribbon in September 2023
Interactive map of The Ribbon
Location31-33 Wheat Road, Darling Harbour, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Coordinates33°52′40″S 151°11′58″E / 33.877898°S 151.199573°E / -33.877898; 151.199573
TypeMovie theatre and hotel
Construction
Opened12 October 2023 (2023-10-12)
ArchitectHassell
BuildersGrocon
Probuild
Multiplex
Website
Official website

The Ribbon is a mixed-use building in Darling Harbour, Sydney, comprising a hotel, residential apartments, retail and movie theatre. Namely, it contains the W Sydney Hotel and IMAX Sydney; which is the third-largest operating movie theatre screen in the world. The building is named The Ribbon due to its unique ribbon-like appearance. On its northern and southern sides, the building is flanked by two carriageways of the Western Distributor.

History

The Ribbon is built upon the site of the original IMAX Sydney theatre which was completed in 1996 before being demolished for redevelopment in 2016.

Construction on The Ribbon building commenced in 2017 and opened on 12 October 2023, after years of delays. The Ribbon was originally scheduled to be completed in 2020, but was incrementally delayed after the successive bankruptcy of two of its builders, Grocon and Probuild. These delays were further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which took place during the building's construction. The original contracted builder; Grocon, declared insolvency and pulled from the project in late 2020. ProbuiId precedingly took over construction in early 2021 before the company collapsed and was placed into voluntary administration in 2022. The building was finally completed by Multiplex, opening in October 2023.

Design

The Ribbon in February 2022

The building has 588 hotel rooms and suites and includes a rooftop heated infinity pool and wet deck with a two-storey bar, several other bars, a spa, a BTWN restaurant, meeting rooms and an IMAX theatre with 325-seats and the third-largest operating movie theatre screen in the world. The screen measures 692 square metres (7,450 sq ft) or 29 m × 24 m (95 ft × 79 ft), making it the second-tallest and fourth-largest screen ever built, surpassed only by the Melbourne IMAX theatre screen which measures 736 square metres (7,920 sq ft), 32 m × 23 m (105 ft × 75 ft), and the Traumpalast cinema hall in Leonberg, Germany which has a screen measuring 836 square metres (9,000 sq ft), 38 m × 22.2 m (125 ft × 73 ft). Due to new constraints in the new building, the screen is slightly smaller than the one in the previous building that it replaced, which measured 1,056 square metres (11,370 sq ft), 35.72 m × 29.57 m (117.2 ft × 97.0 ft).

References

  1. ↑ Rider, Nicholas (27 July 2017). "Sydney's new IMAX theatre is an unorthodox, "ribbon"-shaped structure by Hassell". Architecture & Design. InDesign Media. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  2. ↑ Maddox, Garry (24 August 2016). "Sydney IMAX cinema at Darling Harbour to be demolished". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  3. 1 2 "The Ribbon". The Skyscraper Center. 14 April 2016. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  4. ↑ Goodwin, Kelly (17 January 2019). "The Ribbon Project - IMAX Darling Harbour". Hibbs. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  5. ↑ Mangioni, Sam (13 October 2023). "IMAX Sydney Finally Opens its New Gigantic Cinema". Man of Many. MSN. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  6. ↑ "Grocon Sells Rights to Darling Harbour Ribbon Project]". Conecta. 27 February 2022. Archived from the original on 11 October 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  7. ↑ Chancellor, Jonathan (18 January 2021). "Probuild take over construction of The Ribbon hotel project in Sydney's Darling Harbour from Grocon". Urban. Social Garden. Archived from the original on 11 October 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
  8. ↑ Terzon, business reporters Emilia; Ziffer, Daniel (19 November 2020). "Iconic builder Grocon declares insolvency and is set to go into administration". ABC News. Retrieved 4 March 2026. {{cite news}}: |first= has generic name (help)
  9. ↑ Koziol, Simon Johanson, Michael Fowler, Michael (23 February 2022). "Probuild collapses into administration, 750 jobs in limbo". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 March 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. ↑ "Greaton appoints Multiplex to complete flagship The Ribbon" (Press release). Sydney: Multiplex. 19 July 2022. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  11. ↑ "Marriott opens world's biggest W Hotel in Sydney". Australian Financial Review. 12 October 2023. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  12. ↑ Maddox, Garry (10 October 2023). "Sydney's IMAX is reopening in time for Taylor Swift Eras film". Sydney Morning Herald. Nine Entertainment. Archived from the original on 10 October 2023. Retrieved 19 October 2023.
  13. ↑ Shah, Saqib (13 September 2023). "'World's largest movie screen' revealed by filmmaker Darren Aronofsky". Evening Standard. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  14. ↑ https://www.insideconstruction.com.au/construction-features/the-marvels-of-glass-reinforced-concrete/