The 1860s home of colonial architect Edmund Blacket will not be overshadowed by a tower block after the NSW Land and Environment Court agreed with the City of Sydney that Vision Land should not get permission.
They proposed a complex including a seven-storey tower on the grounds about 10 metres behind the historic building.
The court found that while Vision Land's plan formally satisfied height and other numerical guidelines, it involved "unacceptable impacts on existing views" of the residence, the Australian Financial Review reported.
The court said the "height and bulk" of the proposed tower would "dominate the existing building and adversely impact on its setting".
It said the development had failed to fit "within the view shadow of the [Bidura House] group so that it does not challenge the legibility of the Bidura House group" when seen from the front.
Blacket, the architect for the University of Sydney and St Andrews Cathedral in Sydney, designed, built and lived in Bidura.
Vision Land's plan to demolish a prison building in brutalist 1980s architectural style in Bidura's backyard were approved.
The court found that there was no heritage reason not to knock down the remand centre behind Bidura because its "late-brutalist" architecture was only of "local significance".
A spokesman for the City of Sydney said that the Lord Mayor had asked the NSW Heritage Minister Mark Speakman to protect the remand centre.