A 1960's commercial building in Sydney's Milsons Point has been transformed into a 15-floor luxury apartment complex.
Designed by PTW Architects and completed in June 2009, the complex consists of 76 luxury apartments, including four penthouses and three basement levels for parking.
The depth of the building and its proximity to neighbouring buildings made it necessary to optimise the outlook and daylight penetration on the north, east and south-west frontages by maximising the extent of glazing, provided by Viridian.
The main apartments were orientated to take advantage of the views to the north-east, south-east and south-west. External louvres were limited to areas where they could be visually concealed, with glazing being used to manage solar loads.
With the Sydney Harbour Bridge freeway and railway nearby, glass selection for the building was given careful consideration to ensure that it met acoustic and energy efficiency requirements. To meet these standards, approximately one-third of the glass used incorporated Viridian's Hush acoustic interlayer.
"The acoustic qualities of the glazing were of particular importance in the bedrooms where blocking external noise is arguably the most critical," says PTW director, Terry Brabazon. "The high level master bedrooms in the north-east corner relied heavily upon the glazing and window assembly properties because of the direct exposure to the external road and rail noise source."
While not the building's primary focus, the design did manage to incorporate a number of sustainability features. The retention of the original building's structure meant that demolition and waste material disposal was greatly reduced, as was the energy expended in creating a new structure. Each apartment has independent gas instantaneous hot water heating and separate air conditioning units on each floor matches the demands of the individual apartments, avoiding the energy and running costs associated with a central air conditioning system.
