Our Planners and Engineers have been working with Brown Day Group architects on a large apartment building in Whitaker Place, Auckland, close to Symonds Street and the University precinct.
The existing building was designed by Warren and Mahoney and constructed in the late 1980’s. It was originally designed and consented predominately as a commercial office building. Whitaker Place has evolved over time and is now part of a residential precinct. The new owners, Balanced Investments Ltd, are fully committed to a complete upgrade of the property and improving on the original design by adding four additional levels and creating a mix of apartments. In total, 49 x one-bedroom and 37 x two-bedroom apartments will be created.
Our planners along with Chris Shortt (Civil Engineer – Team Leader) prepared a land use consent application for the owners to extend the building vertically by removing two existing levels and build six new floors to create additional apartment units.
This included:
- Planning Feasibility Report
- Assessment of Effects On The Environment (AEE)
- Review of relevant Operative and Proposed Plan Provisions
- Review of existing floor plan and concept plans
- Preparation and attendance at pre-application meeting with client & architect
- Identification of all consent requirements and provide recommended consent strategy
- Preparation of Land Use Consent Application
- Liaison and co-ordination of specialists
- Attendance at project team meetings
- Responses to section 92 request for additional information (as required)
- Review of Resource Consent Conditions
- Integrated Civil Design
- Reporting on – Water supply; Stormwater and Overland Flow path; Waste Water, Hydrant Testing and any necessary survey of existing drainage system.
We always enjoy working with the team at Brown Day Group and this was a particularly interesting project to be involved with as new life has been breathed into an existing building to accommodate additional apartment units in the Auckland city area. Auckland has a well-documented shortage of housing and this project creates over 80 additional household units on an existing site without increasing building footprint.
This is an excellent example of sustainable development as little demolition is required for the extension and the refurbishment of the building will include being completely fitted out with energy efficient LED lighting. We’re delighted with the results and the smooth transition through the process with Auckland Council and other stakeholders.
