Moran family's Liner House set for Fraser Short restaurant

Moran family's Liner House set for Fraser Short restaurant
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 7, 2020

Publican Fraser Short is planning a 270-seat restaurant at Liner House in Bridge Street, Sydney.

Liner House is owned by the Moran health care family, tucked beside the older Burns Philp building between George and Pitt streets.

Liner House was built between 1959 and 1961, designed by the architects Bunning and Madden, whose best-known work is the National Library in Canberra.

It is known for its striking post-war international architecture, and ­distinctive mural screen by Australian artist Douglas Annand. 

Liner House is also located within a busy restaurant strip emerging on Bridge Street that includes Neil Perry’s Rockpool, Ryans Hotels’ Republic Hotel, Fratelli Fresh and Cafe Sopra, and newcomer Bridge Street Garage. The restaurant will take up the ground floor and mezzanine levels of the Sulman Award-winning Liner House.

The $1 million interiors are set to be installed by Alexander and Co.

The Moran Group bought the site for its headquarters for around $6.25 million in 1997.

The building had been in the ownership of an investment consortium, including Jack Diamond of Rose Bay, which paid $5.8 million for it in 1986.

In the late 1980s there was a heritage inquiry into the treatment of a spiral staircase and bronze mural that was at the time only 28 years old.

The six-storey building designed as a shipping line office had been initially covered by an interim conservation order in 1985.

The "Modern Movement" building won a Sulman Medal for architecture in 1962 for Walter Bunning.

Photo courtesy of Sydney Architecture. 

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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