The Chatswood Interchange project has been revived with the unveiling of three apartment towers.
The $450 million Metro apartment towers will be the highest on the North Shore, at around 260-metres above sea level.
Construction of the first two towers is expected to start as early as June, above the Chatswood Transport Interchange.
Finely-detailed metallic grids and glass curtain walls give the façades a crystalline sheen, with feature blades folding at the top of each building creating distinct crowns.
The developers aim integrate resort-style living in the heart of Chatswood’s shopping, dining, working and entertainment precinct. Residents will be able to use an indoor 25-metre heated lap pool, spa, fully-equipped gymnasium, and a landscaped outdoor sun terrace.
Metro View (31-storeys) and Metro Spire (42-storeys) will be built on the north-eastern edge of the already completed retail podium. Together they will provide 292 apartments.
A third tower, Metro Grand, will soon follow on the western side of the site.
It is anticipated that the 10,000sqm retail centre will be operating well before the first residents move in.
Sydney-based Galileo Group teamed with property fund ISPT to purchase the site late last year.
The tower designs are based on an earlier concept by COX DesignInc.
Architects Cox Richardson describe the towers as “tall, slender and elegant additions to the skyline”.
“The towers have relatively compact floor plates, ranging from approximately 480sqm to 820sqm, allowing for slender forms rather than the slab-like structures found in other parts of the Chatswood Business District,” said Nick Tyrrell, a director of Cox Richardson.
“The towers respond to the Chatswood city grid, adjacent boundaries, rail alignment, and minimise shadow impact on the Garden of Remembrance. They connect the north, south and west via a feature blade wall on one façade of each tower that is aligned to one of these three directions, providing a city-scale signal or beacon symbolically linking to the broader transport network.”
Because the towers are slender it allows for more corner apartments, multi-directional views, cross-ventilation and greater light penetration. Apartments will have multi-purpose wintergardens which provide versatile living space.
“At Metro the relationship of indoor to outdoor living is fundamental,” said Tania Taylor of Cox Richardson. “Wintergarden spaces allow for year-round indoor-outdoor living. Open they create fluid space that brings the outside in, while closed they form a separate room.
There will be four levels of finishes, and within each will be two colour schemes for buyers to select. Upgrades will also be an option.
“Inside the apartments elegance prevails,” said Tania. “Kitchen zones become part of the living environment and a focal point rather than simply a utilitarian place to prepare meals. Top European brand appliances are on show, cupboard handles disappear, and colour palettes are natural, focusing on texture and sophistication.”
