Push for more inner-city living

New apartment proposal for CBD block

A RESIDENTIAL redevelopment proposed for inner-city Hobart is the third of its kind for that block in less than two years.

A development application has been lodged to the Hobart City Council for 130 Murray Street for partial demolition and a new building of seven apartments and food services on behalf of owner Bar Or Up.

A report by All Urban Planning said the proposal would see the redevelopment of the existing single-storey site into a seven-storey mixed-use development.

Designed by Preston Lane Architects, the building would include a commercial ground-floor tenancy for a cafe or restaurant and a mix of two, three and four-bedroom apartments on the upper levels, which would be set back from the street.

An architectural statement said the form and height of the building had been designed to respond to the scale of the nearby State Library building, Construction House and an approved $9m 10-storey residential development at 125 Bathurst Street.

In the same block, an application by Giameos Constructions and Developments for 55 apartments at the former K&D timber yard at 90 Melville Street was also approved by the council in May.

“The proposal will benefit the city through the development of an underdeveloped site to include high-density residential with good amenity as well as a high standard of architecture,” wrote All Urban Planning principal FrazerRead.

“The siting, bulk and design of the development provides an appropriate transition from the higher buildings of the CBD core to the surrounding areas of the CBD fringe and elevated residential areas of West Hobart to the north and west .”

In front of the cafe space would be an open foyer with an art piece, with the walls, floor and ceiling finished in “a shimmering mosaic”.