The $6.5m refurbishment planned for renowned heritage-listed Gaden House
Developer Fortis is hoping its new plans for heritage-listed Gaden House will win over the local community where previous projects have failed.
The boutique developer bought the property last year for $20 million – one of three recent purchases in Sydney’s Double Bay – 14 months after it had last changed hands. Previous owner AMA Property faced fierce local opposition to its development application from a community trying to protect the mid-century modernist building designed by Neville Gruzman.
The outcry moved Woollahra Council to list the building as heritage.
Fortis brought on architecture firm Lawton Hurley to work on the project, and director Peter Hurley has consulted heritage architects on his $6.5 million design, which he’s confident will get over the line.
“There have been a few other DAs [development applications] on the site that have been challenging,” he said. “We’re hopeful that people will see we do respect and love the original building.”
The $6.5 million upgrade will bring the building up to current code standards to function as offices, while restoring the facade and adding two storeys, which Mr Hurley said would be set back to retain the current street presence of the building.
The development will also restore other heritage elements including the internal spiral staircase, terrazzo podium and feature lighting circles.
The two new levels will have a deep recess, which Mr Hurley said would create a visual break between the top of the existing building and the new additions. The top level will be set back and surrounded by plants.
“It’s an iconic building of the suburb and it’s got a fantastic street presence,” Mr Hurley said. “The challenge on a building like this is how to make it larger and fundamentally respect the Gruzman design at the same time.”
Fortis director Charles Mellick has high hopes for the project. He’s lived in Double Bay for 50 years and said the new plans had taken into account the objections to previous proposals.
“We’ve read the previous applications and all the objections and every concern they had,” he said. “I live in Double Bay and I want to see great food and beverage options … I didn’t want to see a nightclub going in there.” He said he hoped the building would have a high-end food and beverage offering at street level: “Maybe an upmarket Japanese place or a jazz bar serving food.”
Mr Mellick said the property was already nearly fully leased, and he expected to see more commercial communities growing in fringe suburbs.
“History has shown they’ll lease up,” he said. “There are three other developers [in Double Bay] with big land holdings … you’re going to bring a lot of companies from the CBD to Double Bay.”
Fortis enlisted Mr Hurley and other heritage architects to design and review the plan to make sure it stayed true to the spirit of the original building.
“We’ve worked with Fortis on and off for many years on a number of heritage projects,” Mr Hurley said. “I’ve seen the commitment these guys have to building quality projects.”
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