Mixed Use Buildings

It doesn't seem that long ago when Peter was advising the owners of Ruthven Mansions at 15 to 27 Pulteney Street on the feasibility of selling off the apartments on separate strata titles while having a retail arcade in separate ownership at ground level. This all seemed so novel (not to mention risky) back in 1993!

Ruthven Mansions was built in 1911 and was a very early venture in apartment living in the City of Adelaide. This obviously fell out of fashion it later became home to the Government Chest Clinic in 1953 and was then refurbished in 1980 by architect John Chappel to operate as an apartment hotel.

Now mixed use buildings are quite common place, because multiple uses are often the most economic use of expensive city land. According to the Adelaide City Council the city population in 2010 is 21,000 and forecast to increase by another 20,130 over the next 21 years. This means that many more mixed use buildings are going to be built and we hope that they involve some new and exciting architecture!

Click on these links for more information on real life examples of mixed use buildings in the city:

223 North Terrace

23 King William Street

Mixed Use Building - 223 North Terrace

Construction on this building commenced in 1969 as a next door carpark for the South Australian department store John Martins. The iconic store closed in 1998, but the North Terrace car park remained to service the new David Jones store which opened in its place.

The Haywards, a wealthy merchant family that owned "Johnnies" had originally planned to build an international hotel on the rooftop of the carpark. The structure was designed with additional reinforcement to take the extra weight, and the lift shafts were strategically positioned so that they could be extended.

In 2001, Buchan Lee in consortium acquired the air rights above the car park and developed the "Martin Towers" apartment project, which later became known as "223 North Terrace". Construction of the 2 apartment buildings (the "North Tower" and "South Tower") commenced in 2003. The transfer zone of the existing carpark roof between the 2 buildings was developed into a recreational area with a lap pool, spa, sauna, gym and skygarden while the sub-basement of the carpark was set aside for apartment resident parking.

In addition to the carpark and apartment mix, the third use of the building is retail shopping, with many shops in the ground floor arcade joining Rundle Mall, as well as several fronting to Charles Street and North Terrace.

Mixed Use Building - 23 King William Street

This is a heritage listed building which was built for the AMP Society in 1936 and was completely refurbished and converted a couple of years ago from its office use into studio, 1 and 2 bedroom apartments focussing on our growing international student market. Re-branded as UV Apartments (University Village), the building also contains 4 common area facilities incorporating TV lounge, reading room, study room and a games room.

The ground level is mostly taken up with an interesting tea room, restaurant and martini bar called Saldechin.

SA leading the student market

We thought we would check in with our friends that market our education products internationally, and it looks like our state is doing pretty well in terms of growth rates when compared to the rest of the country.

South Australia's current market share (ytd March 2010) is 5.9%, and the same time last year it was 5.5%. This is a 0.4% increase in commencements compared with 0.3% nationally. Indian students have increased 11.5 % in SA, with a decrease by 1.9% nationally.

Now if only we can get the Crows and Power to perform as well against the other national sides!

Altitude

We listed some of the Altitude apartments for rental just had our first look inside the building on the old Balfours site in the North West precinct of the city. A few years ago Buchan Lee sold a portion of the area which housed all of the company's distinctive blue vans in between deliveries of their yummy pies, pasties and famous frog cakes. Our friends at Urban Edge acquired it and developed part of the site with townhouses and divided land into blocks for buyers to build their own townhouses.

Another developer has recently completed the 18 storey Altitude building, which is the first in a series of towers planned for the site. The inspiration was the towers of San Gimignano in Italy - a "pin-wheel" design was used with the lifts ascending through the centre of the tower and apartments radiating from the central point maximising the views for all apartments. The glass bottomed swimming pool on the sixth floor protrudes from the structure over the courtyard below, which should make for exciting swimming! It was not quite ready when we visited, but we will bring you photos as soon as we have access.

Inside the Torrens Building

A contact of ours recently invited us to look through the rejuvenated interiors of the stately Torrens Building on Victoria Square. Built in 1879 as a Government building and named after Sir Robert Torrens (South Australia's third premier and pioneer of the world renowned Torrens Title system for transferring land), its beautifully antique exterior appearance matches its historical background. The Australian Heritage Database describes it as "the best remaining example in Adelaide of Italian Renaissance or Neo Classical style with a Palladian composition".

However, the ultra-modern fitouts within tell a completely different story. The building originally housed many State Government departments (including the Land Titles office where Peter used to work!), and was later used by community service groups after a 1999 refurbishment. As we blogged earlier, the major residents now are 3 prominent international universities - Carnegie Mellon, Cranfield University, and University College London (UCL).

The most recent upgrade was done for the UCL School of Energy and Resources campus. It is appropriately sponsored by Santos and boasts stylish furniture, contemporary fittings as well as the latest technology - computers, projectors and audio equipment allowing collaboration and combined lectures with other campuses in Great Britain. UCL is ranked in the top 5 universities in the world and has a global reputation for teaching and research with 20 nobel prize winners among former students and academics.

Urbane, Urbaner, Urbanest

Urbanest ("Urban Nest") is a 17 level building under construction on the corner of North Terrace and Bank Street, and will be the city's latest addition to the student accommodation business.

The developers and operators are saying it will be ready to occupy at the start of the 2011 university intake and it comprises of 488 rooms and studios with the rentals starting at $225 per week which includes internet, electricity and insurance.

This accommodation product differs from other student buildings in the city because it offers clusters of between 4 and 6 bedrooms around a shared living space and fully equipped kitchen. These secure bedroom spaces have ensuite bathrooms and are about 13 square metres in size. There are also premium rooms at the top floors, and studios which are fully self contained but cost more money to rent.