The Lands Department building was built by the NSW colonial government in the late 19th century. It was designed by government architect James Barnet in the Renaissance Revival style popular at the time. It has been continuously occupied by the Lands Department, in its various forms, since being opened in 1892. Its last occupant was the Department of Planning and Infrastructure.

In September 2015 the NSW Government announced that the Lands Department Building, and the Education Department Building (The Sandstone Precinct), will both be redeveloped as a luxury hotel and retail destination.

The project involves the adaptive reuse of the state-significant heritage-listed buildings located on Bridge Street in Sydney.

The MGP Sydney Water team were involved in the earlier stages of the redevelopment, including locating Sydney Water assets and the Out of Scope Building Plan Approval. Our team is currently working with Built and Sydney Water to ensure the proposed development and new basement tunnel are compliant.

Our hydraulic team have recently been engaged to complete the design of the hydraulic and fire services. Working closely with Built, JRK Plumbers and Hassell Architects to ensure we provide effective, sustainable, and efficient design solutions, whilst ensuring the conservation of this heritage building, an iconic Sydney landmark.

Project due for completion: 2024

MGP completed the initial hydraulic design service drawings for the $34 million redevelopment of Sutherland Entertainment Centre in Sydney’s south.

The project involved a major refurbishment of the existing centre along with landscaping to the neighbouring Peace Park. Works included a refurbished main theatre with reconfigured seating for 700, improved wings, stage, back of house and a new staging system to allow for major theatrical productions, a new flexible teaching and rehearsal space, a redesigned foyer, front of house, entry forecourt and flexible outdoor event space, and a café.

Project completed at the end of 2022.

The redevelopment of the Harbord Diggers on the Northern Beaches provided MGP with the opportunity to develop the hydraulic design for construction, along with processing the Sydney Water Building Plan Approval and Section 73 application.

This large multi dwelling and commercial site offers 96 units, speciality retail outlets, Club, indoor pool and gym, along with extensive underground parking.

The complexities of the site arose from designing and constructing the new services while working around a temporary Club still in operation.

The existing infrastructure was not sufficient to meet the demands of the new buildings notably that of water supply for drinking and fire fighting purposes. As such MGP designed water tanks which work specifically to supplement the authority water main, without putting stress on their existing infrastructure.  The design enables this large commercial and residential site to have no impact on the local authority services, and provides efficient and effective amenities to the site.

The Pumphouse Darling Harbour was built in 1891 as a pumping station for the Sydney & Suburban Hydraulic Power Company, as part of Sydney’s power infrastructure, back before electricity provided most of our power needs. When the city switched to modern electric power, the Pumphouse transformed into one of Sydney’s first microbreweries. Today it is a busy bar and restaurant set within the heritage listed building.

MGP were engaged by Dynamic Projects to review the stormwater run-off for the roof and advise on gutter and downpipe sizing, as part of the current renovations to this heritage listed building.

The award winning William Inglis development, adjacent to Warwick Farm Racecourse, includes an Accor hotel with pool, bar, restaurants and conference facilities, 10 hospitality function centres, thoroughbred auctioneer arena, parade and pre-parade ground, stables for up to 1,000 thoroughbred horses, grooming facilities including wash areas, horse walker, lunge area, feed store, isolation stalls and truck wash zone.

MGP were engaged to undertake the hydraulic services incorporating; fire hydrant and fire hose reels, potable cold water, rainwater reuse, natural gas, hot/warm water, trade waste drainage and plumbing, sanitary drainage and plumbing, along with stormwater design.

This project proposed a number of challenges, including dealing with rainwater reuse for irrigation and the demand for over 600,000 litres to facilitate the site, the limited infrastructure on the existing precinct, the originally the design included multiple sewer pump stations, a costly set up with high maintenance costs.

Our solution involved reducing the number of sewer pump stations to one central plant using a gravity sewer. This ensured a high standard of waste water, back into Sydney Water’s infrastructure, MGP included a muffin monster treatment plant and chemical dosing unit to reduce sulphite levels.

The project was completed at the end of 2018.

MGP were briefed to provide a compliant fire hydrant system, an urgent requirement to enable the venues to remain open to the public.  You would think having a compliant fire hydrant system next to the Parramatta River would be straight forward, however complexities of the site required our expert hydraulic team to assist in the successful refurbishment of  the stunning Aqua Luna Waterfront Dining Restaurant, above the Drummoyne Rowing Club.

Challenges arose from several different factors. Firstly, the building sits on Crown Land and has no water supply. Secondly, using the river’s water would require approval from the NSW Department of Industry, potentially a complicated and lengthy approval process and finally, to meet industry standards, a booster value needed to be housed within the club, where available space was already an issue. 

Working with Drummoyne Council, they agreed to the placement of the booster value on the foreshore land, close to the building. A new Sydney Water water supply was designed by MGP, which entailed undertaking works close to the busy Victoria Road. MGP advised and project coordinated the design to meet authority and industry standards and fire hydrant design compliance was achieved for the venue.