53-55 Liverpool Street was a full-scale heritage rehabilitation spanning six levels of an early 1900s timber-framed building in the heart of Sydney. Previously operating across a mix of office, restaurant and nightclub uses, the building was being prepared for its transformation into a five-star boutique hotel. Metro Deco was engaged to undertake the extensive heritage restoration and structural works required to bring the original building fabric back to life and establish the foundation for the future hotel fitout.
The restoration was painstaking by nature. More than 200 original windows were individually removed, scraped back to identify and verify their original paint colours, stripped, restored, repainted and reinstalled. Existing timber floorboards were carefully lifted one by one, stripped, sanded and reinstated, while lift shafts and fire stairs were rehabilitated, the entire facade cleaned and layers of paint removed from internal brickwork to expose and preserve the original masonry beneath. This was craftsmanship on a building-wide scale – combining heritage restoration, structural construction and meticulous attention to detail across six levels while preserving as much of the building’s original character as possible. The project demonstrates the depth of Metro Deco's capabilities beyond conventional fitout, taking on complex construction where the building itself becomes the most important element of the project.