Image Credit : GroupGSA_images Anson Smart
Project Overview
A five-star business lounge disguised as a workplace.
The Executive Centre at Grosvenor Place redefines premium flexible workspace, merging the refinement of a hospitality environment with the operational rigour of a corporate setting. Designed by GroupGSA within Harry Seidler's iconic modernist tower, the 1,916sqm fit out delivers 36 bespoke suites of varying sizes, each digitally modelled to maximise harbour and city views.
The arrival sequence sets the tone: an elegant concierge with a sculptural timber bar, hotel-like lighting, curated art, and a café lounge with barista service. Corridors, often overlooked, become moments of pause and delight, featuring subtle material transitions and custom fixtures. Shared spaces include executive boardrooms, digital pods, private phone booths, and a podcast studio, catering to hybrid professionals.
Locally sourced materials and carbon-neutral certification reinforce sustainability without compromise. The result is a hospitality-branded workplace that inspires return visits, setting a new benchmark for the sector and positioning TEC as a leader in experience-led workplace design.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
LIAM HIGGINBOTHAM - PRINCIPAL
JESSICA MARGIOTTA - ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL
JORDAN OTTLEY- INTERIOR DESIGNER
PIERRE GAVELLE - INTERIOR DESIGNER
Project Brief
A flagship to attract global enterprise and ambitious professionals.
The Executive Centre's (TEC) fifth Sydney location was conceived as a flagship workplace that would respect Harry Seidler's Bauhaus-inspired architectural vision while embodying TEC's high-end, hospitality-driven brand. The brief called for a sophisticated, future-ready environment that not only meets the current needs of multinational corporations and SMEs but also anticipates and accommodates their future requirements, differentiating TEC in a competitive hybrid workspace market. TEC wants to entice members to the office by offering an experience beyond home or public spaces.
GroupGSA's design honours the building's elliptical, column-free floorplate and rhythmic modernist geometry, reinterpreting them through warm walnut joinery, mosaic tiling, and refined detailing. Layouts maximise operational efficiency and preserve unbroken sightlines to Sydney's CBD and harbour, enhancing daylight penetration and spatial openness. Carbon-neutral certification, sustainable material sourcing, and efficient building systems reinforce TEC's commitment to environmental responsibility.
Hospitality-style touchpoints such as a café lounge with barista service, sculptural timber bar, and executive boardrooms deliver a sense of occasion and elevate the workplace experience, encouraging member loyalty.
Flexible office typologies are seamlessly integrated with premium communal spaces, creating a dynamic environment adaptable to varied business needs.
By balancing brand luxury, operational excellence, and architectural authenticity, TEC Grosvenor Place positions itself as a destination workplace for ambitious professionals and a strategic asset that strengthens TEC's market leadership in Sydney's Circular Quay precinct.
Project Innovation/Need
A workspace reimagined as an aspirational lifestyle choice.
TEC Grosvenor Place challenges the notion of the workplace as purely functional, instead positioning it as a premium lifestyle environment. The innovation is blending three typologies—workplace, hospitality, and social club—into one seamless experience.
Every suite was 3D-modelled to optimise the elliptical floorplate and ensure no wasted space, while preserving unbroken views of Sydney Harbour and the CBD. The design transforms transitional areas, such as corridors, into immersive, human-centric experiences with custom lighting, curated art, and tactile finishes that elevate movement through the space.
Shared amenities—including a podcast studio, private phone booths, and digital pods—cater to modern hybrid work patterns, supporting digital connectivity and in-person collaboration. By integrating high-quality hospitality cues like the sculptural timber concierge bar and atmospheric café lounge, the design offers members more than a desk—a sense of belonging, connection, and status.
The result is a workplace where people actively choose to spend time, redefining the value proposition of flexible office space in the post-pandemic era.
Design Challenge
Respecting heritage while delivering contemporary hospitality.
Creating a high-performance, hospitality-focused workplace within Harry Seidler's architecturally significant modernist tower required exceptional design sensitivity and technical precision. The building's elliptical, column-free floorplate, likened by Seidler to 'a camera on the view', demanded an innovative test-fit process. This process involved a meticulous examination of the space to ensure that each suite achieved operational efficiency and balanced proportions, while preserving daylight penetration, visual connectivity, and uninterrupted harbour views.
A key challenge was embedding a premium hospitality environment's tactile richness and ambience into a high-traffic commercial setting without compromising durability. Warm walnut joinery, mosaic tiling, and other robust yet refined materials were selected for longevity, ease of maintenance, and spatial elegance.
Integrating modern building services into the original architectural envelope without detracting from its modernist integrity required careful coordination and detailing. Operationally, the project had to be delivered on a tight programme in a live CBD tower with minimal disruption to neighbouring tenants. Through meticulous planning, precise execution, and close collaboration, GroupGSA produced a seamless interior that honours Seidler's vision while delivering the elevated, hospitality-branded experience central to The Executive Centre's global positioning—spaces that are both practical for daily use and memorable for their refined, human-centred design.
Sustainability
Sustainability is embedded from the outset.
TEC Grosvenor Place was conceived with environmental responsibility as a core driver, achieving carbon-neutral certification and setting a benchmark for sustainable workplace design within the premium flexible office sector.
Locally sourced, low-impact materials, including warm walnut joinery, natural stone, enduring metalwork, and 100% sustainable timbers, were chosen for their aesthetic appeal, lifecycle value, and low maintenance requirements. Low-VOC finishes improve indoor air quality, supporting occupant wellbeing.
Furniture reuse and repurposing extended the lifespan of high-quality pieces, minimising landfill waste while maintaining brand consistency across the TEC portfolio. Energy-efficient lighting systems, combined with Seidler's original emphasis on natural light and the building's open, column-free floorplate, reduce operational energy demand and enhance user comfort.
Adaptability was embedded into the planning, ensuring the layout can evolve with changing tenant requirements and avoiding premature fit out replacement. By aligning sustainable practice with premium design, the project demonstrates that environmental responsibility enhances rather than compromises perceived quality.
The result is a low-carbon, high-performance, and enduringly relevant workspace that delivers long-term operational resilience and serves as a global template for future TEC projects.
Interior Design - Co-Working & Studio Space
This award celebrates innovative and creative building interiors, with consideration given to space creation and planning, furnishings, finishes, aesthetic presentation and functionality. Consideration also given to space allocation, traffic flow, building services, lighting, fixtures, flooring, colours, furnishings and surface finishes.
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