Inside a red brick reinvention

Inside a red brick reinvention
Mark BaljakMay 18, 2014

It's not a common occurrence; the restoration of one of Melbourne CBD's fleet of early, red brick warehouse and/or office buildings coupled with the addition of a handful of levels.

A number of classic red brick edifices in recent years have been lavished with a particularly golden touch. 105 Lonsdale Street was transformed at the hands of Kubic Construction and is now crowned with a golden mesh clad covering the additional floors which resemble old lanterns, a nod to the building's proximity to China Town.

Elsewhere VCAT have recently approved a golden kinetic facade extension to the 1902 Metcalfe and Barnard warehouse fronting Russell Street (seen below right).

Inside a red brick reinvention

The focus of today's article however is 167 Flinders Lane which was redeveloped late last year. Designed by Elenberg Fraser, the existing structure received three additional levels consisting of commercial space and penthouse.

Head contractor Maben describes the project as follows:

A heritage listed building in the former ‘rag-trade’ district of Flinders Lane was gentrified and enlarged with a luxury penthouse and office addition on its roof.

This very complex project required the erection of a tower crane for the removal of the roof, demolition of the upper floors and insertion of two concrete lift shafts. A new 3 level, clear span, steel and concrete structure was added, including a new luxury penthouse apartment, two level office fitout and extensive base building refurbishment. The works were completed in an operational environment whilst maintain public access to the existing retail and office tenants located on the lower floors.

The site location, in the centre of the CBD, meant complex materials loading and traffic management techniques were adopted on this extremely tight site. Public protection was paramount and water proofing, dust protection and noise reduction was essential in maintaining the amenity of the retail and commercial offices on the lower floors.

Maben: Flinders Lane

Enjoy the images taken from the Maben website, depicting the high quality expansion of 167 Flinders Lane.

Mark Baljak

Mark Baljak was a co-founder of Urban.com.au. He passed away on Thursday 8th of November 2018 after a battle with cancer. He was 37. Mark was a keen traveller, having visited all six permanently-inhabited continents and had a love of craft beer. One of his biggest passions was observing the change that has occurred in Melbourne over the past two decades. In that time he built an enormous library of photos, all taken by him, which tracked the progress of construction on building sites from across metropolitan Melbourne.

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