First look: New apartments to hit Carlton Gardens

Melbourne's Carlton is set to score a new collection of apartments on the sought-after fringe of the green Carlton Gardens.

The $80 million plans for a 13-level apartment tower and seven townhomes have been lodged by a company associated with Chinese businessman Wang Hau, the chairman of the Nanjing-based conglomerate Jeshing Group.

He paid $20.68 million for the site a 1-23 Rathdowne, on the corner of Rathdowne and Victoria Street, in 2013 from the Anti Cancer Council of Victoria. Currently on the 3,106 sqm block is the old 1970s Cancer Council building and a red brick warehouse.

Previously a much bigger site homed the Coffee Palace building, which was built in 1888. It was demolished after a fire in the late 1960s.

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A c1888 drawing of the original Coffee Palace building. Source: Albert Charles Cooke.

There will be 77 apartments, designed to take in extensive views over the gardens with extensive vision glazing in all living rooms and bedrooms. The majority will be two-bedroom apartments, 42 of them. There will be only a single one-bed apartment, 27 three-bedders, six four-bedroom apartments, and a massive 557 sqm penthouse.

Just seven townhouses will be located on the ground level, a mix of one, two and three-bedrooms.

Residents will have access to private amenity on level one, which will include a pool, gym, yoga, sauna and steam room, and further amenity of two open space terrace areas with seating, a meeting room, and a library.

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There will be three office suites totalling around 615 sqm, and a 221 sqm ground floor cafe.

In readiness for Zero Carbon operation the development will be entirely serviced using electricity.

Bates Smart has designed the building to be separated into three distinct volumes that are arranged around a central landscaped forecourt. The two smaller volumes present as podium forms to the street, while the third volume comprising the upper levels  is designed  as a recessive and neutral element in contrast to the podiums below.

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"The proposal is envisaged as a collection of stacked objects, with three distinct hierarchies, low, mid and upper," Bates Smart noted in their design statement submission.

"These three distinct zones are further broken down through scale, form, setbacks and materiality, which respond to each orientation of the site.

"Careful articulation of the facade, breaks these objects down even further and wrap around and inset balconies and recesses provide additional depth to the facade and a play of light and shade.

"A primary façade grid is overlaid on the stacked objects and creates an ordered framework, framing balconies, windows and edges. The colour, materiality and texture of the façade grid is varied in response to the orientation."

Bates Smart worked in collaboration with the landscape architecture firm Barber, who in their statement said they landscape response to 1 Rathdowne Street is a unified program in close collaboration with Bates Smart Architects responding to the local context; the surrounding, existing victorian townhouse architecture, their private landscapes and the central urban Milieu.

"The landscape responds equally to the performance of landscape in buildings and specifically a tailored response to the proposed architecture and site development," they noted.

To be notified on the next stage of the development, enquire here.

There is no heritage issues following the heritage impact statement report, however it did note the importance  of face brick, bluestone and rendered masonry construction materials within the precinct.

"The proposed material schedule for the building directly references this combination of materials, however reinterprets them in a contemporary manner that ensures they will remain legible as new development," the report read.

The submission to the City of Melbourne Council noted the 99 walkability score from the development, with everything accessible by foot, as well as solid public transport infrastructure.