First look: Rare shop-top housing development planned for Artarmon
Artarmon, the affluent suburb on Sydney's Lower North Shore, is set to receive a rare new off the plan apartment development.
Plans have been filed with the Willoughby Council for a shot-top housing development at 64 Hampden Road, across the road from the Artarmon Train Station.
The $8.65 million project with 18 apartments above a commercial space will replace an old commercial building which has stood on the site for around five decades. It is currently home to an Australia Post office.
The current AusPost building on the corner of Hampden and Jersey Road.
The one and two-bedroom apartments will be spread across two five-level buildings at the southern end of the Artarmon ton centre.
SJB noted a substantial amount of mature canopies along the rail corridor, on Jersey Road, and as a setting for the residential towers. They said the proposal responds to the context and neighbourhood by creating a two-storey fine grain podium that establishes a relationship with the two storey shopfronts in the town centre.
"The massing and built form responds to the existing town centre, the desired future character of the area, the new LEP and the surrounding context," SJB's Design Report noted.
"The five-storey scale is consistent with the new LEP controls recently gazetted."
The new LEP (Local Environment Plan) SJB refers to was recently put in place by the Willoughby Council which saw "appropriate increases in building height and size" in the local centres of Artarmon, North Willoughby, Naremburn, Castlecrag, Northbridge, Penshurst St and Willoughby South. The aim is to "encourage new local jobs and housing diversity close to services and transport," the council advised.
"This density and scale is appropriate for the location, the site is within a town centre and 100m from a train station," SJB added.
They suggest the site has access to excellent amenity, with the train line opposite taking just one minute to get to Chatswood and 15 minutes to the city. It's also a walk to shops in the town centre, 250 metres from the local public school and 300 mertres from a number of local parks.
