H & F Property enter Box Hill with 12-14 Nelson Road
Emerging local developer H & F Property is seeking a slice of Box Hill's booming apartment market with a current planning application for a substantial residential building.
Submission of the planning application follows H & F Property's earlier pursuit of rezoning for the relevant site which was initially tagged as Commercial 2. Now consistent with the Box Hill Activity Centre Transit City Structure Plan, H & F Property are chasing approval for a 20 storey mixed-use building created by SJB Architects.
Abutting Box Hill RSL, the proposal is substantially taller than anything in the immediate vicinity.
12-14 Nelson Road, Box Hill: summary
- Submitted August 2015 with revisions dated January 2016
- Current site use: single storey warehouse building
- 1,598sqm site area
- Proposed 20 level building at 64.5m (lower ground)
- 148 apartments: 11 x 1BR, 29 x 1BR + Study, 108 x 2BR
- Retail tenancy: 143sqm
- Podium commercial tenancies total: 1,110sqm
- Basement and podium capacity for 180 vehicles
- 91 bicycle spaces and 165 residential stores
- Communal facilities include roof deck, residents lounge, gym, BBQ / dining areas
The proposed development is still relatively modest in scale for this rapidly evolving suburb. At ground level (and the three podium levels) retail and/or commercial tenancies fronting Nelson Road provide activation and an engaging interface. Residential apartments activate the ground and podium levels to Shipley Street.
There are no south-facing apartments – a significant aspect of this proposal. In addition, apartments have been arranged such that there are a number of opportunities to combine one and two bedroom apartments to provide generous three bedroom family residences.
Architecturally, the proposal seeks to create a contemporary building form and façade language. A series of framed elements blur the legibility of floor levels by combining multiple levels into a single architectural component. These
components also have the effect of making the building composition feel lighter, distorting its mass, and altering the scale and rhythm of the building.The framed elements also create a dynamic, cascading pattern across the façade, giving it a strong and distinguishable architectural character amongst the varied architectural forms within this energising precinct.
SJB Architects, January 2016 Architectural Design Response
Integral to 12-14 Nelson Road's planning documents currently on display is the project's Urban Context Report prepared by SJB which gives an indicative development outcome for Box Hill through to 2030.
Although a concept, the image below does provide a glimpse of Box Hill's future with the current inundation of apartment buildings showing no sign of slowing. Of particular interest is the density emerging around Wellington Road with Spotlight Development Group's intended project joined by fellow projects 5-9 Wellington and 16-22 Wellington.
While the graphic provides great detail for current and expected built form north of Whitehorse Road, various development sites south of Whitehorse Road are not included. Factoring future large towers into the below graphic, an understanding of the massive proportions that Box Hill is headed toward can be gained.
12-14 Nelson Road is the second entry for H & F Property within the Urban.com.au Project Database, following on from their current apartment development located in Glen Iris. At 1555-1559 Malvern Road, Grace Apartments is a Conrad Architects-designed building containing 43 apartments over four levels.
With the concrete structure complete, builder Maxcon is proceeding with internals on the development which has an expected completion date toward the end of 2016.
12-14 Nelson Road development team
- Developer: H & F Property Group
- Architect and Urban Design: SJB Architects
- Town Planning: Pro Urban
- Landscape Consultant: Tract
- Traffic Engineer: MGA Consultants
- Waste Management: Lid Consultants
- ESD: ARK Resources
