Podia and CPG take aim at premier position in Neutral Bay
Podia and Centennial Property Group are looking to add to Neutral Bay's tightly held apartment market via a fresh development application that landed with North Sydney Council earlier this month.
The submission for approval follows on from Colliers successfully selling 14-20 Premier Street during January; the site with 63 metres of frontage contained four small-scale freehold apartment buildings and was billed as a prime development site.
Site in hand, entity AIDOP No 2 Pty Ltd on behalf of the development duo is looking to inject 36 new dwellings into the Neutral Bay apartment market. Spread across a sloping 2,175 square metre plot, the development would maintain sweeping view over Forsyth Park, the North Sydney skyline and the Sydney Harbour Bridge beyond.
Presenting as two levels to Premier Street, the rear of the site would rise to five levels, affording many apartments with expansive vistas.
Architecture practice Ess Lifestyle is behind the design, opting for strong horizontal elements punctuated by generous amounts of greenery.
Internally the proposal provides for 36 apartments, broken down into the following matrix: 7 x 1 bedroom, 16 x 2 bedroom apartments, 12 x 3 bedroom apartments and 1 x 4 bedroom apartments. The healthy number of three bedroom apartments and the addition of a four bedroom apartment has the project aimed at the upper end of Sydney's residential market.
Ess Lifestyle has designed the apartments where possible to include a minimum of two frontages in order to maximise available light and ventilation. Effectively two buildings connected via an enclosed walkway, the highly transparent design provides a scale and apartment density that is appropriate for "both the existing and future multi-unit developments in the area, and within the proposed evolving local context."
The overall massing dual building form is a rational response to the particular constraints of the site/context and the functional needs of the proposed program. As such the final built form and facade articulation was the result of the process to create a project that maximises amenity while being sensitive and responsive to both its existing and future contexts.
The proposed façade articulation is horizontal in nature and provides a bespoke response to the amenity requirements. The inclusion of planter boxes helps break down the symmetrical rhythm of the internal planning providing a rich and textured facade. The simple material and colour pallet deliberate response to the project’s urban but garden locale.
Simple expressed horizontal elements provide the framework for an exploration of texture providing differing levels of solidity, transparency and opaqueness through material manipulation. The addition of greenery helps to further enliven the facade and blend it in with the locale.
Ess Lifestyle Design statement
14-20 Premier Street has a development cost of $13.28 million, with the application currently at referral after having its time before Council's Design Excellence Panel.