A couple of enterprising developers show how a tricky heritage renovation can be handled successfully with a bit of cooperation – and kid gloves. Rob Bird and Carl Hinton are business partners in Urban Impact, a development company they started when they came to Australia several years ago, bringing with them well over a decade of construction experience in the United Kingdom. “Saving old buildings is something we’re quite passionate about,” says Carl, “especially coming from the UK, as it’s a common procedure there.” Of course, Britain has considerably more ageing structures than Australia does to work on, but Carl still feels more could be done to preserve what there is here. However, it’s perfectly understandable that people shy away from revamping a heritage house or home unit simply because of the structural restrictions they are bound to come up against, but Carl and Rob’s experience with this brilliant renovation is a superb example of what can be achieved with plenty of communication up front and the desire to cooperate, all in a good cause.
The ‘raw’ material
What they had to work with was one dwelling in three units – two upstairs and one down – in Pittwater Road, Manly, on Sydney’s North Shore, and it was the streetscape that was heritage-listed, not the house itself. “We got a heritage report done,” says Rob, “and historically, it was probably built around 1890.” “There are actually three separate buildings,” Carl takes up the story, “the original one with the sandstone cottage and then, in the early ’30s, the trend in architecture made it unfashionable to see the roof. So, in 1932, they put quite an ugly façade in front of it and extended at the back at the same time. We had to keep the facade,” he adds, “because that’s part of the heritage streetscape.” Rob describes the structure they were faced with as a ‘bit tired’. “Because it was built in three different phases, the architectural style obviously wasn’t consistent throughout,” he says, “so we had to enhance the various characteristics of each era it did have and use every feature that was already there.” The whole thing was clearly assuming monumental proportions even in the early stages and one wonders what would have happened to it if these ‘heritage crusaders’ hadn’t taken it over. “That was exactly the argument we put to the Council,” Carl grins, “because what we had taken on was quite ‘modern’ in a technological sense, and putting in the third floor as a mezzanine was the only way to make the project viable. And if we weren’t able to do something like that – and it hadn’t gone ahead – the building would have just fallen into disrepair.”
Here comes the cavalry
Enter another renowned ‘crusader’ in this field, Dr Terry Metherell, who chairs the sub-committee that considers heritage-related development applications for Manly Council’s Heritage Committee, which he says, “was very supportive of this renovation and remodelling”. Although they had an initial concept in mind, there was a fair amount of evolvement as it progressed because first, the structure had to be brought up to current Australian building standards. “That meant every single wall, floor and ceiling,” says Carl, “and between the two levels, there are actually three ceilings. It also had to meet fire regulations,” he goes on, “and because it was so old, we had to be quite inventive with procedures to maintain the integrity of the safety standards – yet without compromising the look of it.” But ‘evolvement’ is something of an understatement as a description of the changes of plan that were brought about by the radical upgrade of the building, because it uncovered ‘treasures’ in the form of original features Rob and Carl simply weren’t aware of – and the stunning sandstone walls are a good example. “At the time the place was built, this style of sandstone was considered very low-grade,” says Carl, “so it definitely wouldn’t have been on show. It was all covered by render – and had been for 100 years. In fact, when we bought the property, we didn’t even know it was there – we happened to find it while doing some investigations. So, as features like that were found, we had to adapt our initial concept pretty drastically.”
A little treasure-trove
Rob cites another example of these unexpected discoveries when they rearranged the layout downstairs. “As we knocked out the old kitchen, we found a void under the stairs which we didn’t know about that was actually big enough to put a second bathroom in,” he beams. “We just had to move things around a bit to fit it in.” Sadly, limited space here precludes more tales of wonder about what they found, but one final one has to be recounted – the water feature on the deck. When they were halfway though the project, the place next door was being demolished. “It was just a fibro cottage,” says Carl, “and the demolition team found that the original footings underneath were solid sandstone! They were about to take them to the landfill site and dump them – and we just managed to catch them as they were leaving! So these huge blocks were lifted off the truck with the JCV and dropped over the fence into our backyard.” They then got a stonemason in and he reckoned they must have been cut from the local quarry – which, in the 1890s, was right across the road. “It’s not there now obviously!” he laughs. “Anyway, we had them cut up to make that water feature. There’s even what they call the ‘sparrow-picking’ marks on the face of the stone slabs from when they were cut out of the rock.” “We made the doorstep downstairs out of it too,” says Rob. Clearly, they both take great delight in the details, and one feels it should all be documented or labelled somehow, so that people appreciate it. “It was a concern of ours that we were going to all this effort and people may very well not realise what’s been done,” Carl admits, “but everybody involved has been very excited about it all – and it’s definitely been worthwhile.” So, even if full recognition isn’t forthcoming, their own satisfaction lies in knowing exactly what they have achieved – and not wanting it any other way.
Story by Gabrielle Baxter Styling by Greg Sukendro