The Premier, Kristina Keneally, has warmly endorsed a plan to build one of Sydney's biggest hotels more than 100 metres out over the harbour, insisting it will not create a precedent other developers will seek to follow.

And the British architect behind the Barangaroo proposal, Richard Rogers, said he had ''no reservations'' about going where no private developer had been allowed to develop before.

A model of the proposed hotel at Barangaroo. Credit:Brendan Esposito

The difficulties of achieving a good design made building over the water the best solution, said the architect known for a string of famous works including the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

''One of the problems we have had is this amazingly hard line - we call it the aircraft carrier. It had a function 100 years ago, it had a major function. Now it has no function,'' he said of the edge of the old container wharves at East Darling Harbour.