When my acountant came to me asked if I could finish off a set of plans he got with a block of land they bought for their new corporate headquarters, I said sure, no problems. Unfortunately the well known Architect that designed the building had overlooked some very important items in the preliminary design process, and had created a development that could not be built.

1. The basement would have under-mined the three storey brick building next door – redesign.
2. There was only one fire exit stairs – the building codes required two fire exits – redesign.
3. The disabled access and toilet facilities were not in accordance with the codes – redesign.
4. He designed a feature balcony to access city views, next to a pizza shop smoke stack – silly.

So, my job expanded to re-creating a building that complied with all the codes, within the scope laid down by a non-complying DA approved building. Working closely with my Certifier and engineer we achieved the impossible with only minimal reduction in net lettable area, and managed to get the decks onto the eastern side of the building where they faced away from traffic noise, burning pizza smells and almost achieved moreton bay views.

The clients occupy the whole top floor and sublet the lower floor to smaller businesses, and what started off looking like a disappointing exercise was turned around by careful and clever design.

CTBS – Confidential Tax & Business – great accounts – excellent advice.

Photos by me – can’t you tell?

I am particularly proud of this development, because at the time, we had to work particularly hard to get higher densities than the planning scheme otherwise permitted. Increasing the density from 50% GFA to 74% allowed an extra two units in the development. Proximity to the adjoining dwelling house required an offset roof profile.

photos courtesy of google and realestate rentals searches. credit to Ray White as watermarked.

This project came to me from a developer who had purchased a DA approved site with approval to add a third level on top of an existing brick apartment building. The previous designer had made some fundamental mistakes with fire separation and structural support and when I started redrawing it, I had to basically re-design the whole building again, starting from scratch.

The finished product looks nothing like the original brick building and has gained three additional apartments in the process.

Images are a collection of my own photos, realestate sales images and google streetview images.