The Ribbon is a hotel, apartment building, retail store and movie theatre located in Darling Harbour, Sydney. It houses the W Sydney hotel and the third-largest operating movie theatre screen in the world. The building is named The Ribbon due to its unusual ribbon-looking appearance.[1] On its northern and southern sides, the building is flanked by two carriageways of the Western Distributor.
History
The Ribbon is built upon the site of the old IMAX theatre which was built in 1996 and was demolished after closing in 2016.[2]
Construction on the new building started in 2017, was finished in 2022 and opened on 12 October 2023.[3][4][5] The Ribbon was originally scheduled to be completed in 2020 but was delayed due by the bankruptcy of two of its builders, Grocon and Probuild, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.[6][7] It was completed by Multiplex opening in October 2023.[8][9]
Design
The Ribbon in February 2022
The building has 588 rooms and suites and includes a rooftop heated infinity pool and wet deck with a two-storey bar, several other bars, a spa, a BTWN restaurant, meeting rooms and a 325-seat cinema with the third-largest operating movie theatre screen in the world with a slightly curved IMAX screen that is 692 square metres (7,450 sq ft) or 29 m × 24 m (95 ft × 79 ft) which is also the second-tallest and fourth-largest screen ever built, surpassed only by the Melbourne IMAX theatre screen which measures 736 square metres (7,920 sq ft), 32 m × 23 m (105 ft × 75 ft), the Traumpalast cinema hall in Leonberg, Germany which has a screen measuring 836 square metres (9,000 sq ft), 38 m × 22.2 m (125 ft × 73 ft) and the screen in the previous theatre building that it replaced, which measured 1,056 square metres (11,370 sq ft) 35.72 m × 29.57 m (117.2 ft × 97.0 ft).[3][10][11][12]
