GURNER's affinity with Yarra continues

GURNER's affinity with Yarra continues
Mark BaljakFebruary 11, 2017

Developer Gurner continues to rack up apartment projects within City of Yarra, with the latest an intended apartment development at 23-33 Johnston Street, Collingwood.

Although active across many of Melbourne's inner city suburbs, Gurner continues to cherry pick sites across City of Yarra, with the municipality a honey hole for the Prahran-based outfit. Gurner has also maintained its penchant for well-regarded architecture firms, utilising Cox Architecture as the design lead for 23-33 Johnston Street.

Cox Architecture joins the likes of Warren and Mahoney, Elenberg Fraser and Koichi Takada Architects as design outfits which have produced apartment schemes for the developer within City of Yarra. 

GURNER's affinity with Yarra continues
Johnston Street as is. Planning image: Cox Architecture

Urban.com.au's Project Database shows five active projects for Gurner within City of Yarra, headlined by 26-56 Queens Parade which has garnered considerable media attention in recent times.

Gurner's latest entrant at 23-33 Johnston Street encompasses four allotments over 1,873sqm. Located within the Johnston Street Activity Centre, 23-33 Johnston Street would overlook the adjoining Contemporary Arts Precinct which in times gone by, acted as a campus for education provider NMIT.

The recently submitted proposal seeks to replace an existing planning permit onsite for a six level student accommodation complex encompassing 189 student apartments.

Headline figures for the Cox Architecture design sees a 12 level mixed use building comprising 154 apartments, dual ground floor food and drink retail outlets over 460sqm and car parking for 121 vehicles. 154 storage cages and 48 bikes are included, as is a landscaped roof garden on level 8.

GURNER's affinity with Yarra continues
23-33 Johnston Street. Planning image: Cox Architecture

The proposal will also maintain a considerable portion of the original building's frontage to Johnston Street, with the tower's curved facade taking its design impetus from the nearby Keith Haring mural.

23-33 Johnston Street aside, 1-35 Wellington Street and the Spanish Club's redevelopment join 26-56 Queens Parade as projects that are at planning for the developer. Across these combined four projects currently at planning, roughly 570 apartments can be added to Gurner's pipeline. This number would have been far greater, but for the redesign of 26-56 Queens Parade which has seen the proposal lose as many as 120 apartments.

Other projects directly under the guidance of Gurner include 28 Stanley Street which is receiving its finishing touches and the freshly completed 107 Cambridge Street which has revamped part of the Foy & Gibson Precinct to include 90 new apartments.

GURNER's affinity with Yarra continues
107 Cambridge along with the original 26-56 Queens Parade. Image: Koichi Takada Architects

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.

Editor's Picks