You can reach for the Skhy
These apartments, sitting above retail spaces, are priced for value, writes Sandra Goodwin
The master- planners of popular urban areas including Britomart and City Works Depot have designed loft apartments wrapped around a leafy courtyard as part of the second stage of Skhy. Cheshire Architects has designed Skhy to be a planned community of apartments, commercial and retail spaces in the heart of the city precinct becoming known as Uptown. This precinct around Upper Symonds St above Auckland’s CBD encompasses Eden Terrace, Newton and Grafton.
Skhy Two’s Auckland Grammar- zoned one and two bedroom apartments will be very near the top of Khyber Pass Rd.
The uptown location is one that architect Pip Cheshire and Lamont & Co, developer brothers Tim and Andrew Lamont, believe offers huge opportunity.
Andrew says: “We love its accessibility — it’s only three kilometres from Britomart — and its existing mix of great restaurants, retail and cafes; plus the Victorian and Edwardian character of the streetscape around here.”
Skhy Two will be diverse, spanning both low- rise and high- rise components, with numerous apartment floor- plans complemented by the mixed use components. Views vary from elevated fifth or sixth storey apartments to more inwardly focused ones.
Andrew says these are being described as loft apartments because: “The main focus of the apartments is designed to look down on to a beautifully landscaped courtyard.”
Pip says: “I think what makes this most different from other developments is that it is designed to be part of the urban fabric of the city, not an enclosed gated community.
“It’s that idea of creating a total environment rather than some discrete building that’s just plopped on a site in the city looking out at everything.”
The landscaped courtyard will be a semi- public space within the development as it also forms a through site link to Hohipere St, off Upper Symonds St. This is where work is under way on an adjoining part of the same site on first- release Skhy, also designed by Cheshire Architects, which sold out within weeks of being offered.
Due for mid- 2017 completion it repurposes construction industry giant Winstone’s 1970s historic flagship tower into high- end apartments. ( Skhy was named for the front letters from Symonds St and Khyber Pass.)
The Lamont brothers say Skhy Two responds to requests they had to follow up with apartments which are still interesting yet priced towards the more affordable end of the spectrum.
The original Skhy’s industrial aesthetic has influenced Skhy Two. Its elegantly simple layouts feature engineered timber flooring and expose some core structure such as beams and concrete ceilings.
The development will sit above two levels of basement car- parking.
It will include an L- shaped building with frontage along Khyber Pass Rd, incorporating a four- storey wing and a six- storey tower section. A small pavilion- style building including two premium apartments sits within the courtyard area.
The four- storey wing has distinctive dual- aspect two- storey two- bedroom apartments above ground- floor retail. They look out over the courtyard as well as having angled panels along the Khyber Pass face highlighting that interesting outlook and capturing late afternoon sun.
These two- level apartments are arranged across three floors in an interwoven layout that creates access for all through a central corridor. Though the tower section looks over the courtyard, its fifth and sixth floors also have views over surrounding buildings out towards the Waitakeres.
Landscaper Damian Wendleborn, of Urbanite Landscape Design, who was responsible for some of the landscaping around Britomart’s pavilions, was commissioned at Pip’s suggestion. He’s chosen mostly NZ- Pacific planting for the courtyard’s big planters.
Pip says: “He has a great sense of what’s required in urban spaces.”
Skhy Two is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2018.