85 Fort Street

EYEONAUCKLAND added this project

85 Fort Street is designed to occupy a difficult corner site adjacent to the historic Roller Mills Building. Located on reclaimed land at the edge of Auckland's original foreshore and on the border of the old headland that was Fort Britomart, this scheme proposes retail to the street and office accommodation above.

The building is organised with a side core against the firewall of the adjacent building to the north. On the south it is set back from the boundary, respecting the historic Roller Mills Building, allowing fenestration against the neighbouring site and creating a lane on ground floor. The lane continues the open plan ground floor beyond its glazing line and terminates with a garden at its rear end on the cliff edge. It also provides access to three levels of below ground car parking. The building mass is composed of three interlocking volumes, breaking down the overall scale into distinct elements with different elevational treatments, responding to the context. On the lower Fort Street levels and on the southern side a heavy stone-clad facade with deep window reveals relates to the public realm and the historic context. The window reveals are angled in plan, referencing the building's location at the kink of Fort Street - directing the views west down into Fort Street.

On the upper floors angled glazed fins create a veil in front of a curtain wall. Where the window reveals on the bottom zone were orientated south-west, looking down Fort Street, the glass fins are angled north-west, directing the views out to the harbour and providing protection from the western sun. The side core is expressed as the third element with a glazed stair behind a perforated metal screen.

10 months ago