Iconic Bellevue Hill Apartment Block Strata Titles, Renovates, and Flips

An iconic piece of mid-century architecture has been redeemed! After a steady decline from its 1957 construction, the ‘Baxter’ apartment block at 85 Drumalbyn Road in Bellevue Hill has been refurbished by a property developer under the design of architects Melocco & Moore with interiors by degin firm SJB. The block of apartments sold for $4.4m in Nov 2011. Almost immediately after closing on the property, the new owners lodged a DA with Woollahra Council for a $312k renovation, landscaping works, and strata subdivision of the 9 units. Several months later, in June of this year, they lodged an additional DA for a $50k conversion of an office into a studio apartment, bringing the total number of apartments in the block to 10. Although those totals seem to be understatements of any renovation work, if we’re to base our profit breakdown off the publicly available numbers, it reveals some pretty friendly numbers for the developers. The listing agent is quoting the ten 2-bedroom apartments between $695k and $955k. 

85 Drumalbyn Road pre-renovation.

The block was designed and built by Hungarian-born architect L.T. Rayner in 1957 as a personal investment property. The architect had just returned to Sydney after completing architectural work for the 1954 Melbourne Olympic Games (and a 1955 Toorak apartment block) and pushed forward the rather daring and modern apartment block in the ‘International Style’ for the steep site, complete with coloured spandrel panels, extensive use of concrete, and a flat roof.

The location is slightly subprime, being in that hiccup of Drumalbyn Road where the road is divided. However, its situation amongst other small apartment blocks is fitting, and the price point is easily justifiable. Radical Terrace is eager to understand how the public market will value such a specific architectural style that, until recently, has not been inherently well-valued by the market. 85 Drumalbyn Road: we’ll be following you.

Chris Russell of Mondell Property Group has the listing: ‘Baxter’, 85 Drumalbyn Road, Bellevue Hill

Click below for the floor plan for that crazy small 10th apartment, and the floor plan for apartments 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, and 9.

Read More

Radical Terrace Approved: Castle Cove Mid-Century for $3.5m+

Hot off the heals of a Neutral Bay home that seems all too primed for a flip, the Radical Terrace has come across a 1964-constructed single-story home in Castle Cove that is also just a pretty basic renovation away from being a contemporary Sydney landmark. The four bedroom home has a solid floor plan, with all secondary bedrooms boasting a bathroom. The living areas all well-oriented to panoramic Middle Harbour views and maintain many original and iconic period fixtures. And there’s even a pool house! On many fronts, this home is the closest to a Hollywood Hills/Trousdale Estates home than any we’ve seen in Australia.

Working against the home is a price point that’s more Castlecrag than Castle Cove and an oddly situated master bedroom that appears to look into the neighbour’s home instead of the harbour vistas beyond. Nonetheless, we’ll take it. And we’re pretty confident that a $500k renovation could add far more than that amount in value to the home. Surprisingly, Modern House does not have the listing; instead the listing honours go to Neil Adam of Adam First National. The property is to auction with $3.5m+ expectations. 

The listing: 51 Headland Road, Castle Cove

Click below for more photos!

Read More

Seidler’s ‘Gissing House’ Lists for $3m+

A Harry Seidler-designed 5-bedroom home on a 1600sqm battle-axe block in the heart of east-of-the-Highway Wahroonga listed with $3m+ expectations. The home, designed for a family of 5 in 1971, is built of hollow concrete block piers vertically reinforced supporting a concrete floor and roof. It last traded in early 2008 for ~$2.65m in a well-maintained state through McGrath agents, who failed to make any mention of Seidler in their online marketing campaign (although the home is a short walk to Abbotsleigh and Knox! Score!). Thankfully for us, agents Modern House have scored the listing this time and we are therefore treated to the complete architectural merits of the property through their thorough description. It’s so good, in fact, that Radical Terrace can’t quite give any summary property justice, so just head over to Modern House to read their verbiage. 

Has the property appreciated $400k in 4 years? In some regards, simply staging the home well - as Modern House has done based on listing photos - can justify such a bump in a home’s perceived value. And considering many a home lacking in Gissling House’s architectural pedigree on similar size blocks in lesser Wahroonga locations consistently nab $3m+ prices, we find this property a solid buy in an otherwise fluctuating Upper North Shore locale. 

Going for it:

• Battle-axe block in between Billyard and Water Streets in the most desirable Wahroonga locale
• The lighting behind the console (above) is worth at least $500k (well, maybe not…) in our books
• The doors and door hardware and of legit high quality
• Wood-treated ceilings? Seidler was 40 years ahead of that trend (or 20 years behind, depending who you ask)

Leaning against:

• The concrete bricks look pretty damn dated; and they aren’t getting any younger.

The listing: Gissling House, 9A Water Street, Wahroonga

Click below for more stellar listing photos including original renderings (nice touch, Modern House, nice touch…). And hat-tip to Radical Terrace reader Kevin for bringing this listing to our attention. :)

Read More

Sandringham Modern on the Hunt for $2.5m+

A modern, glassy abode in Sandringham has listed with price expectations in the high-$2mils. The bayside suburb of Sandringham plays host to architecture that runs the gamut of the 20th century, with the dominant period of development occurring in the post-war years, placing a premium on the interwar properties that dot both Fernhill and Bay Roads, the two most deriable thoroughfares in the suburb. Victoria Street, where today’s featured home is situated, is an eclectic but desirable address where such a seemingly-cantilevered glass box can be sandwiched between an Edwardian and a contemporary “off-the-plan” style home without much aesthetic complaint. 

The home was purchased by the current owners as a tear down in Aug 2006 for $870k. The result of the new construction is a 4-bedroom, 2-bathroom home on a 763sqm block with a 15m pool. If the home does indeed break the $2.5m mark, it will be among the only new constructions in the suburb to achieve such an honour (as far as we can ascertain). Victoria Street’s highest price is the $3.4m paid for #47 in Feb of this year; that home, a 1920s on over 2,000sqm of land, is far more characteristic of Sandringham’s top-end than the newly built #77 that sits just off Bluff Road. 

The interior fit out is solid, most notably the solid use of joinery and timber veneer in the stairway and the extensive and creative use of glass and clerestories. On the downside, having to cross the entryway to use the bathroom is never good fun for the youngins’. 

Scott Banks of Banks Real Estate Group has the listing: 77 Victoria Street, Sandringham

Click below for more images.

Read More

Modernist in Kew Returns to Market for Same Price

Remember how we said Kew is - weirdly - the heart of modernism in Melbourne? Well, enter 12 Dunlop Avenue. The modernist home in the Studley Park precinct of Melbourne, sold in May 2011 for $2.215m. Now, only 16 months after it sold to its current owners, the home is to auction with expectations around the same price as it last sold. The home is a stunner, by all stretches of the imagination. Even with a very surface level renovation (and a pretty B-grade one at that) dated between its 2006 sale for $1.45m and its most recent sale, the functional floor plan and strong architectural bones can not be disputed. Maybe it’s the 1200sqm parcel with pool and pool house, but Marshall White agents Stephen Gough and Robert Ding sadly state their listing “may also be of interest to those looking to build a trophy home of real significance.” Say it ain’t so, Stephen and Robert! 

The other tragedy at 12 Dunlop Ave? Not seeing more of the staircase at right in the image below:

Click below for more images, floor plan, and listing information.

Read More

‘Island Retreat’: Waiheke Island Modern by Fearon Hay Architects and Penny Hay

From the architects: An arrangement of freestanding structures around a sheltered central courtyard rests in a saddle above Matiatia Bay. The natural undulations of the saddle have been subtly emphasized to form a natural setting for three roofed structures and freestanding raised pool. Inspiration for the site came from a study of lightweight, canopy- like structures, tensioned to the ground plane. Draped roof planes are tensioned to the surrounding landscape over interior and exterior spaces.

LINK: Fearon Hay Architects

LINK: Penny Hay Interiors

Award-Winning Streamline Modern Darling Point Abode for Mid-$4mils

Present-day Yarranabbe Road, home to some of Sydney’s finest real estate, was laid out as early as 1833, forming a shaky pathway to the iconic and still intact Gothic Revival mansion ‘Lindsay.’ And although evidence exists of an 1856 subdivision of Sir T.L. Mitchell’s land where our featured property - 99 Yarranabbe Rd - sits (see map below), the formal subdivision did not occur until 1927. 

It wasn’t until 1937 that Joan Nisbet purchased the lot and, one year later in 1938, her architect husband John designed and constructed a home that copied ‘Sunspan’ the controversial London home design by Wells Coates in 1934 (pictured below). The Sydney incarnation of the home is a prime example of Inter-war modern architecture and garnered significant attention from local press (it was featured in both The Home magazine and the Sydney Herald). Below Sunspan, an aerial view of Darling Point in the 1930s reveals the exclusively single-family setting in which 99 Yarranabbe was initially situated.

Sunspan (above) and post-renovation 99 Yarranabbe Rd (below)

1935 Darling Point aerial (3 years before construction of 99 Yarranabbe)

Flash forward to June 1999 when it appears the property traded for $4.8m. It seems like a big price when taking into consideration Number 99’s current ask, but that’s what records show us. In early 2009, a $700k renovation plan was submitted to the Woollahra Council for the by-then Heritage-listed property calling for the third-floor master bedroom, a car port, and landscaping alterations. Andrew Burges Architects designed the renovation for which it won the 2011 Woollahra Heritage Conservation Award. The Radical Terrace definitely digs this home: the casement windows, the efficient floor plan, and clean lines all evoke Nesbit’s original intent. Walter Antonelli of Raine & Horne Double Bay has the listing and, according to Domain.com.au and RealEstate.com.au the home is looking in the mid-$4mils.

99 Yarranabbe Road, Darling Point

Mid-Century Pedigree - With or Without an Architect’s Name

Boutique Sydney real estate agency ‘Modern House’ first came to our attention in March when they nabbed a beautiful Bill Lucas-designed Castlecrag listing that remains on the market. Their latest listing, recently highlighted by Jonathan Chancellor at Property Observer, is another home of solid mid-century modern bones, with a recent sympathetic renovation. As we’ve mentioned on this blog, the Upper North Shore first experienced a spike in prestige residential development at the turn of the century; however, it was not until the post-war years that the Ku-Ring-Gai council filled in many of its last remaining vacant parcels (or larger estates were subdivided). Because of this, some of Sydney’s best examples of modernism can be found in the Polo Belt from Killara on north to Wahroonga (with, of course, the gems of Castlecrag and Middle Cove having the highest concentration of mid-century modernism). Here comes the heritage-listed 73 Kintore Street. It last traded in Oct 2009 for $940k; expired listing photos indicate some TLC required. Thankfully, the current owners knew what they were getting themselves into. The Radical Terrace especially digs the window treatments. We’d love to ramble on about the property more, but Modern House - never failing to disappoint - does a far better job than we could. Read Marcus Lloyd Jones’ full description here.

Pricing indications reveal $1.2m+ expectations, meaning the current owners don’t stand to earn much of a profit on their purchase and renovation; although with this house going to auction, one can never be too sure how another purchaser will value such a rare offering. 

Something Good Actually Exists in Canberra

Radical Terrace has yet to venture to Australia’s masterfully-designed/poorly-implemented capital city of Canberra. However, in the midst of this Pyongyang-with-gum-trees, there exists a pool house of “real” capital city standards. Designed by David Katon(formerly of overrated Sydney starchitecture firm Burley Katon Halliday)’s firm Katon Redgen Mathieson, this modern poolhouse in salubrious suburb of Yarralumla ticks most all of the good design boxes.  I’ll let the architect’s do the talking:

“…[T]he clients purchased the adjoining property to their existing contemporary residence to accommodate a tennis court, indoor swimming pool and guest accommodation. A new simple, single level off-form concrete structure houses the heated pool, shower facilities, a kitchenette and a sitting area with a fireplace. Sliding glass doors open to the east and west from the indoor pool and the sitting room, with timber screens providing sun control to the west. Three large circular skylights are located above the pool. A lightweight steel structure accommodates guest accommodation within an upper level. A palette of Off-form concrete, grey stained timber and Travertine stone floors are used throughout. The new pavilion sits comfortably in scale and style with the existing residence, and forms a strong architectural background to the tennis court from the main house.”

Bonus! It was recently featured on ArchDaily!

Cracking Contemporary Take on Mid-Century Modern in Mosman

After a brief preview on the market late last year, 6 Cyprian Street in Mosman has emerged on the market once again. This is a favourite of ours; it’s rare to see such a well executed modern take on mid-century modern; even the flagstone feature walls somehow work. Kingsley Yates of Ray White Lower North Shore has the listing and he’s hoping for $8-$9m+. Yates is a bit of a Lower North Shore icon in the real estate world, staking claim to some impressive sales spanning the 2088, 2089, and 2090 post codes. The property last sold in 2005 for $3.8m and was subsequently demolished. Is it a flip? Not so sure, but she’s a beaut’.

The upsides: Solid architecture, secluded position, north-facing orientation and views, well executed indoor-outdoor living

The downsides: This enclave of Mosman on the north side of Chinaman’s Beach is isolated, and not necessarily in a good way. Too much time on Military Road would make any sane person go mental.

The listing: 6 Cyprian Street, Mosman

Really Large Kitchen Island Lists at a Loss

An impressive modern abode fronting Terrigal beach (and a beach ball’s throw away from the Terrigal Lagoon) in Wamberal listed today at $3.8m, a pretty hefty loss on the $4.15m the vendor’s purchased the property for back in 2007 (the good ole’ days). And did you see the kitchen island? It’s huge!

Matt Reynolds of Matt Reynolds Realty has the listing.

$12m+ Hopes for Mornington Peninsula Institution Residence 

Rollo Moore and Prue McLoughlin of Kay & Burton Flinders nabbed this Merricks listing. The property was completed in 2007 after “four years of planning and consturction” (likely the victim of some lazy planners and construction crew) and the owners want $12m+ for the SJB Architects-designed house. 

Pros: Beautiful location; well situated; nice view-lines; the entrance is definitely very cool.

Cons: Five kitchens? No thank you; hyper polished grey ironbark wood floors look cheap and dated; exterior railings look institutional; the whole house rubs off more as provincial art gallery than high-design modernism. Oh, and it’s called Cunana. Lame name. Better luck next time.

Recommendation: Either purchase a block of land elsewhere on the peninsula and build your own pad for far less than this bulky box or save yourself $7m and buy this dude in Point Leo.

The listing.

PS. What is up with that bed in the master bedroom?!? Yikes!

Wog Palace? Or Architectural Statement?

I still can’t decide. There’s something about the use of materials and its 1990s-take-on-Brutalism that fascinates me. But simultaneously, the house sits heavy on its cliffside location and seems oversized for the lot. Regardless, Bethwyn Richards of McGrath Eastern Suburbs holds the Renato D’Ettorre-designed listing and it looks like they are expecting $10m+. 

Pros: The best South Coogee location; quiet street (I’d venture to say this is the quietest oceanfront Eastern Suburbs location); captures some solid Northern-exposures

Cons: It would be very difficult to make any interior changes.

Perfect for: A professional athlete with a healthy ego and his/her family.

14 Bunya Parade, South Coogee

Great Primer on Victorian Architecture

I promise my next post will be NSW-focused. But this overview of historic architecture from Heritage Victoria is just too good to pass up. It walks the viewer through the overarching architectural styles common in Melbourne. All styles are also common in Sydney as well (with the exception of far fewer examples of Early-Victorian north of the oval/field dividing line). Did I mention they have floor plans too?!? FLOOR PLANS! 

Click here for the link.