Oriental Bay Apartments
Our client approached us to help redevelop an iconic and historically protected residential building overlooking Wellington harbour. They wanted to convert the building into two luxury apartments and to add a new penthouse level apartment. Whilst not mandatory to maintain the building facade, the client and architects felt that the original look best suited the proposed new luxury apartment look and feel.
You would have expected contractors to jump at the chance to undertake this redevelopment project. However, the market was very busy and following an extended tender process, we had to source a contractor from out of town to help us get this project underway.
The building was completely stripped out, leaving only the façade and portions of the ground floor and roof structure. The building required full bracing and some intricate underpinning techniques, which were further complicated by an apartment owner wishing to extend ground floor excavations further into the hillside to include a double and stacked garage.
Due to strict building envelope criteria we had zero tolerance for constructing outside the allowable building lines. To compound this, a neighbouring property, concerned about losing their views of the harbour, insisted that we minimise the height of construction.
To maximise tolerances, as well as the internal ceiling height of the new penthouse apartment, the top floor, which was cambered to provide falls for what was originally a roof-top tennis court, was jackhammered and ground flat. This work, together with a redesign of the roof structure and storm water system, provided an additional 200mm of penthouse ceiling height without adding to the height of the building, pleasing both the neighbour and the client.
Prior to completion and closing in of the project, the penthouse apartment owner requested their fit-out be fully integrated into the remaining base building works. After careful negotiations with the incumbent building contractor, there were now two focuses and deadlines.
Despite delays due to bad weather, the project was completed to both clients’ full satisfaction and on budget.