Harry Seidler-designed building in North Sydney to become a school

The six-level office building at 41 McLaren Street will be overhauled to house a school.

Private developer Built has teamed up with international group Inspired Education, which owns top private school Reddam House, to propose a high-rise campus in the heart of North Sydney.

The pair will overhaul the Harry Seidler-designed block at 41 McLaren St with the building – best known for being photographed by Max Dupain – to then open in 2025.

There is surging demand for city schools and the NSW government in 2020 opened the Inner Sydney High School, which saw the redevelopment of the Department of Education’s site on the corner of Cleveland and Chalmers streets in Surry Hills.

In Melbourne’s CBD, the private Haileybury College opened a vertical campus after buying a King St building for $52.5m.

In North Sydney, the new K-12 independent school will house about 1550 students in an overhauled office building known as Simsmetal House, designed in 1971 by Mr Seidler.

The building’s basement will become a drop-off area and have a hardcourt play area, with the internal fit-out to be altered and the facades to be repaired.

The plan comes after Stadia Capital last year bought the building for more than $80m, putting an end to an earlier scheme for a major commercial and residential tower.

Built now owns the site and assisted Inspired in finding a location for a new school to add to its existing Sydney network. Built, one of the country’s largest private construction and development groups, will remain the landowner and Inspired will be the occupant and operator.

Inspired is an international group of more than 80 premium schools educating more than 65,000 students across 23 countries on five continents. Since the acquisition of four Reddam House schools in South Africa in 2013, Inspired has grown via greenfield projects and acquisitions across the world.

It has four local schools including Reddam ELS Woollahra, Reddam ELS Lindfield, Reddam ELS St Leonards and Reddam House Sydney. Reddam ranked top of the coeducational independent school in NSW and placed sixth in 2021 for HSC results despite being non-selective.

Inspired had targeted Sydney’s North Shore through an extensive site selection process and the new campus will help meet student targets in the district.

Before the switch to a school, Stadia worked up a development scheme incorporating the existing Seidler building with new prime grade office space.

Before Stadia’s ownership the 8450sq m complex was owned by a consortium including developer RBG for over 20 years. It had a scheme to keep the heritage building and add six office levels.