With dual street frontage, this triangular site adjacent to Grey Lynn’s eclectic shopping precinct required an innovative and original design response. The solution combines two small blocks of high quality townhouses with ground floor retail spaces on Great North Road. This layout facilitates a sympathetic engagement with existing retail units along the main street frontage, while maintaining an appropriate relationship with the residential cul-de-sac on the western boundary.

Key urban design initiatives have been implemented relating to height, grain and typologies appropriate to the local context. A central circulation space between the two blocks affords light, outlook to east and west, and important cross ventilation. Hanging gardens, a communal outdoor social space and a pedestrian access way promote greater site permeability and opportunities for social interaction. An exterior material palette featuring bricks, glazed tiles and textured concrete is sympathetic to the existing context while also being distinctively contemporary.

This significant residential/retail project commanded top sale prices for the area, and has contributed to the ongoing transformation of Great North Road and Grey Lynn.