Viva steps inside two stylish homes in one of Auckland's coolest new loft apartment complexes.
Dave Donaldson is one the few developers in this city with an eye for preserving heritage, rather than bowling it. Indeed, when it came to breathing new life into the Mt Eden Steel Works, Donaldson and his partner Mike Bakker put together a team - architect Jack McKinney of McKinney & Windeatt Ltd and builder Aaron Clark of Clark Bell Construction Ltd - to shore and strengthen before polishing the blasted brick, exposing the concrete walls, steel framework and wooden trusses, and maximising the magnificent steel windows.
The factory property, tucked up a private lane off Mt Eden Rd, was built in 1924 for a steel-framed window manufacturer (the Woolnough Window Company which later merged with Crittal Metal Windows), and was a thriving business with 100 staff through until the 1970s. Since then, lucky artists, jewellers and even archaeologists have made it home until the factory was bought in 2000 by Donaldson.
Today, when it comes to those who inhabit the 4000 sq m building, Donaldson must be pretty proud of how the owners have created their own character and style in the offices and apartments he has restored. He is renowned, after all, for getting the best out of people, collaborations that don't stop when the owners move in.
His most recent owners - artist Cruz Jimenez and international marketer for Les Mills Vaughan Schwass - had admired the development when it first launched, but it was only last year, when they were looking for a home that would have enough room for a painting studio and display gallery for Jimenez's work, that they revisited the complex. Their double height space - lit with banks of skylights - is quirkily angled, with two enclosed rooms either side of a reception lobby opening into the vast living area. It was the original foundry room in the old steel works.
"We felt like Dave was interviewing us, that he wanted to pick the right people," says Schwass. "He had such a great vision for the place; the architect Jack McKinney has created the perfect lines. When Dave came in here after we'd moved our stuff in, he said 'this is how I imagined it would be'."
The pair say that now the Steel Works has filled up - four of the 18 apartments are residential, the rest a mix of design, talent agencies and similar businesses - it has become a real neighbourhood, even hosting "street parties' to mix the daytime and night-living crowd. The couple has visions of their spacious apartment becoming a New York-style drawing nightclub where artists gather to work, in an ambience of velvet ropes and curtains, models, cool music and great food. Jimenez has already had some informal showings of his work and plans to show other artists, accompanied by jazz or a piano player.
The walls in the gallery-like space still bear scars of the splashing steel. Jimenez's south studio was the men's toilet block; the restored concrete floors and walls have the remains of copper pipes and marks on the walls, but the vast urinal went to the tip. He is in full production mode at the moment for an exhibition opening, so canvases are stacked around the walls. But when work calms down, he has visions of turning the studio into an old-style Victorian plant room, stacked with books and exotic orchids that thrive in the filtered light.
The studio has already had one incarnation as a dining room, but the couple prefer to have their large dining table in the middle of the warehouse, close to the cooking action. The slick grey kitchen is roughened with a large industrial steel and wood island from The Boiler Room, and is a great spot for either one person or a crowd.
Decorating the vast space was not a problem. The pair say that after moving from their villa in Mt Eden, they like to keep this big open space a bit more minimal ("I feel it's a bit crowded at the moment," adds Jimenez). Their furniture blends French velvet and oak from a vintage shop in their former home of Los Angeles with a 1960s Danske Mobler dining set from Schwass' parents, Perspex chairs and a 70s-inspired velvet armchair from Natuzzi. It helps that they have a good eye and the patience to dig out a bargain. They hang out for the terrific sales at ECC to dress the space with signature Italian lighting, but designed a crisp dressing area in their mezzanine bedroom from a main street wardrobe company. Glass-fronted display cabinets feature cleverly arranged vignettes with a slightly macabre tone (wax casts of Jimenez's hands, a bird's head, worn old books). The generous entry lobby has room for the pair's Schwinn cruiser bike brought back from LA. Their zen-like water tub no longer hosts goldfish after several murderous excursions by their cat, Oscar, but does have a serene floating petal or two.
Donaldson's developments are as much about creating neighbourhoods and preserving the fabric of a building. His previous projects include Takapuna's Department Store (converted from an old post office) and the Takapuna Beach Cafe, as well as the Kiwi Bacon Factory in Kingsland, now magazine offices. His work draws cool people, who in turn make cool precincts out of previously sad areas. Around the perimeter of the site drab 60s flats are getting a facelift, a shoe-box Chapman Taylor cottage (built as a model for worker housing) is now mostly hidden by vegetation on the grounds of a grander house and the mix of living and work spaces mean the area can be lively while tucked away from noise and traffic. Schwass and Jimenez have reason to be proud of creating the neighbourhood vibe envisioned by Donaldson all that time ago.
Penny's place
For someone whose previous homes have included an antique-filled cottage in Auckland and houses in Tauranga, Penny Harwood seems to have settled very comfortably into The Steel Works. Perhaps it is the building's sense of place and history which makes her feel at home or the fact that she was able to secure one of the prettiest apartments in the building when the the 18 live-work properties came up for sale just as the market softened in early 2009.
"I'm a huge reader of decorating books, I must be the library's highest user and I'd always dreamed of living in a loft space," she laughs. "I saw the ad in Urbis [magazine] and got quite excited".
Although it is easy now to see how Harwood's charming mix of French antiques, rustic and polished steel fits perfectly in the airy space, it is only when you look at pictures of the raw loft that you realise just how cleverly she has transformed the space, and what vision it took.
The first floor, south-facing space has spectacular advantages: tall ceilings and three walls of steel windows, which look on to a brilliant lime green elm tree. The only walls are to the smart bathroom, the rest is one large room. Harwood revels in the flood of morning sun in her bedroom, and late summer sun, but otherwise is surprised at how much she enjoys the soft light and skeletal branches of the tree in the winter rather than the classic Kiwi chase for north-facing living. The basic palette - a frame of stained bamboo flooring around the mid grey carpet, dark grey kitchen cabinets and slick Italian bathroom - offsets Harwood's pieces, many painted wood in shades of grey from dark shark to soft, rubbed silver. She's used touches of soft egg-shell blue, brushed steel and plenty of mirrors to bounce light and views through the 96 sq m of space.
There was no way Harwood was going to abandon her beloved collection of antiques, accumulated first in Tauranga and more recently from Philippe's, so with some judicious pruning (and a storage locker) she manages to make the single airy space seem larger, zoned into distinct areas.
"I move the furniture around all the time. Sometimes I have to wait for the son-in-law to come, but I've got quite good at sliding things around," she says. "But I've had this layout the same for over four months, so it must be about right."
Three large armoires anchor each end of the room - two at the bedroom end beside the entrance and bathroom, a third in the dining room for china and linens. Her French upholstered bed is surrounded by an indulgent sweep of sheer linen curtains ("From Trelise Cooper's collection [CharlesParsons], it was my big extravagance"), light dances off mirrored cabinets, shapely vintage lamps and her collection of glass domes, protecting and displaying makeup and jewellery like a pretty shop. This is her favourite spot in the weekends, newspaper spread out, sun pouring in, sheltered from neighbouring buildings by a growing palm garden.
The rest of the windows got floor to ceiling drapes in various shades of grey, generously cut from budget lining fabric. Roman blinds at the kitchen end leave the original steel struts on view, a rugged contrast to Harwood's huge French table and chairs. Her "garden" is a collection of porcelain flowers and leaves from one of her favourite stores, Madder & Rouge (she also collects hearts from there) and pots of lime green baby's tears bring the elm tree's hues indoors.
Harwood is grandma to seven kids, and her house is not too precious for over-night stays. An antique iron campaign bed tucked behind the sofa is a sought after guest spot, and the huge table can be a centre for art projects. Harwood calls herself "household manager" for her busy daughter, Moochi owner Kelly Taylor, so the house has to be flexible to fit family life.
She admits that with Mt Eden's cafes just around the corner, there are more pre-dinner glasses of wine than actual dinner parties consumed in the flat. She adores shopping and collecting, her eye honed by a lifetime working around fashion and interior design - but loves even better to find a bargain. Linens from France are tucked under a quilt from Ezibuy, $500 slip-covered couches found on Trade Me cosy up to an antique coffee table. She wishes she had the room to pull pieces out of her storage locker to rotate more finds, but she has more dreams.
"City living is great. The only better thing would be a place at the beach."
