Two residential projects seek their spot on Hawthorn's Burwood Road

Two residential projects seek their spot on Hawthorn's Burwood Road
Mark BaljakNovember 20, 2017

On of Hawthorn's more peculiar buildings may well be replaced by a new tower with 393-397 Burwood Road subject to a planning application.

Expected to make way for a new apartment building is the incumbent low-rise and architecturally unique commercial building onsite. Although not carrying heritage significance - that is reserved for properties elsewhere along Burwood Road - the current structure does provide a design point of difference along the strip.

Nonetheless, the current application would amongst other things, seek to enliven Burwood Road, Serpells Lane and the public plaza located at 372 Burwood Road with active frontages.

Incidentally, the addition of 393-397 Burwood Road to the Urban.com.au Project Database now sees the number of apartments monitored by Urban.com.au and under development within Hawthorn teetering on the 1,100 mark.

Two residential projects seek their spot on Hawthorn's Burwood Road
Burwood Road's latest aspirant. Planning image: Ascui & Co

Spanning 11 levels, 393-397 Burwood Road 47 apartments are categorised as 24 x 1 Bed + 1 Bath, 3 x 2 Bed + 1 Bath, 20 x 2 Bed + 2 Bath. ranging between 45sqm and 76sqm, the apartments are above 3 sub ground stacker levels and a ground floor which includes 4 retail tenancies over 265sqm.

393-397 Burwood Road finds itself next to one of Hawthorn's pioneering high density builds. The Barrett was built over 2004/2005 and rises to thirteen storeys and includes 107 residential apartments plus 41 student dwellings which front Burwood Road.

A design collaboration between Bird de la Coeur and the then Hayball Leonard Stent, The Barrett's podium height will be replicated across the podium of 393-397 Burwood Road. Above that, project architect Ascui & Co describes the facade as an "interwoven and faceted bronze curtain wall cladding form intended to provide contrast and relief from existing built forms consisting largely of brick and concrete frame buildings."

Two residential projects seek their spot on Hawthorn's Burwood Road
The site with Barrett under construction during 2004

For Ascui & Co 393-397 Burwood Road continues the architecture practice's affinity with Hawthorn, registering their fifth current project within the Urban.com.au Project Database for the suburb. These five follow on from a handful of already completed apartment developments in Hawthorn conceived by the practice.

Not too far away developer PC Prestige Pty Ltd has sought approval for the construction of an 8 storey apartment building holding 45 apartments across a 1,178 square metre site spanning 620-624 Burwood Road.

624 Burwood Road which dates back to 1917 is to be razed under submitted plans. According to planning documents, 624 Burwood Road has undergone significant alterations and although a Heritage Overlay applies to land to the north and west of the site, the overlay does not include the site itself.

Two residential projects seek their spot on Hawthorn's Burwood Road
What is and what could be. Images: Google Earth & Interlandi Mantesso Architects

In an area that includes a mix of built form, Interlandi Mantesso Architects have conceived the 8 storey project which includes tessellated facebrick, perforated patterned concrete, textured White/ Grey renders and Charcoal highlights over its facade.

Internally 7 single bedroom apartments are around the 51sqm mark, 33 dual bedroom apartments band between 68sqm and 89sqm, with 5 triple bedroom apartments holding internals between 100sqm and 137sqm. A ground level 599sqm retail space has been earmarked as a car sales showroom.

620-624 Burwood Road has pushed the number of dwellings in development that are being tracked by Urban.com.au to beyond the 1,200 mark.

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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