Eliza by Tony Owen Partners

Eliza by Tony Owen Partners is a curvaceous new apartment building being built under challenging conditions in Sydney’s CBD.

Developers Ceerose engaged Tony Owen, whose digital designs are better known in the Middle East and Asia than in Sydney, in the hope of breaking away from the uniformity of traditional apartments.

The contoured and sculptured asymmetrical facade.

The contoured and sculptured asymmetrical facade.

Image: Tony Owen Partners

“It is in a culturally significant heritage precinct so we are using traditional, precious materials – but in a progressive way,” explains Ceerose’s Ewadward Doueihi. “We spent a lot of time studying Sydney’s classical buildings and found that they were quite flamboyant for their era, just as Eliza will be.”

The final design for the building is a smooth, rounded exterior with grand, luxurious interiors. Tony Owen contoured and sculpted the asymmetrical facade, and let environmental factors determine the form of the building. A five-storey-high wall of evergreen climbing plants will be at the rear.

Residents will enter from the street through a grand lobby with a curved sandstone wall, limestone floors, laser-cut timber screens and onyx-clad lifts. On the ground level, Eliza will have a business centre, library, lounge area, meeting room and a concierge – facilities more in keeping with a boutique hotel.

Every floor is a different shape, and each apartment designed individually. Levels two to six have two apartments per floor, each featuring two bedrooms, two bathooms and a study. The upper levels will contain eight four-bedroom apartments, each taking up an entire floor. The penthouse will have two complete floors of living space, and a rooftop level with limestone paving, hardwood timber decking, a landscaped garden, an infinity-edge pool, outdoor kitchen and entertaining facilities.

The kitchens will be finished in high quality materials, with limestone floors, Calcutta marble benchtops, stainless steel and marble splashbacks. They will be fitted with appliances from Gaggenau and Liebherr, sinks from Abey Quadrato and tapware from Gessi Rettangolo. Light and dark bathroom schemes are available, using honed travertine, bluestone, mosaics, and fittings and fixtures from Gessi Rettangolo and Villeroy and Boch.

These palatial apartments sport floor-to-ceiling windows optimizing light, airflow and views over Hyde Park. Upper-level apartments also have views of the harbour.

Many of the apartments feature wintergardens that can open for ventilation or be sealed to retain heat, and provide a seamless transition between indoor and outdoor living areas.

The diggers were lifted out of the twenty-five-metre-deep hole with a crane.

The diggers were lifted out of the twenty-five-metre-deep hole with a crane.

Image: Ceerose

Tony Owens Partners used three-dimensional computer modelling to create the fluid, complex shapes of the seventeen-storey building. In this project, the design team used advanced software that allows users to work concurrently, merging and synchronizing individual ideas into one cohesive outcome.

The construction has thrown some challenges at the developers. The site is only 290 square metres and is hemmed in by tall buildings on busy Elizabeth Street. Excavating down six storeys was a slow and tricky procedure. It took twelve months to complete the excavations and then there was the question of how to lift the excavating machinery back to street level. In the end, the project partially closed Elizabeth Street for a night so that a crane could be brought in to lift the two diggers out of the 25 metre deep hole.

The building now emerging from the ground is expected to be complete in April 2013.

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