| 87 Studio 37 ARCHITECTURE 0800448304 www.granthamgroup.co.nz Delivering high-quality, safe, and reliable, commercial and residential plumbing and drainage services. WWW.SHOWERWELL.CO.NZ VALUE, VARIETY, SERVICE. TRUSTEDSOLUTIONS FORYOURHOME T T Virginia Wright Focus on mixed-use developments La Quinta Ellerslie brings a substantial, vibrant building to the community. Gary Bickerton, the director of Auckland’s Studio 37, has been practicing architecture for over 30 years, more than 20 of them out of his Freeman’s Bay office. He began in housing and multi-units and gradually moved into apartment buildings, hotels and the mixed-use developments that have become something of a trademark. He and his studio have designed and delivered more than a dozen major residential and commercial projects, collaborating extensively with prominent local developers and contributing significantly to Auckland’s ongoing growth and development. “Mixed-use developments is our focus today, which includes vibrant projects like La Quinta Ellerslie which brings a substantial building to the community,” says Gary. Gary moved to Auckland’s Onehunga when he was 10 and spent years walking and biking in the neighbourhood of One Tree Hill and Safari Group’s La Quinta Ellerslie development. He has worked successfully with the integrated developer-builder Safari Group and their Managing Director Robert Neil for over 25 years, sharing a capacity for hard work and a straightforward approach to managing the complexities of such major builds, Gary says. “Our teams work really hard together and have done so for a long time. We’ve developed strong processes with our design that allow us to look for efficiencies, that reflect what Safari Group need, and that have been proven over time. So many people put so much work into a project like La Quinta Ellerslie, the consultants, the managers and the Council too, they obviously contributed a big part of the design process. It took a massive team of people to create that amazing building.” Other developments done over the years that were master planned by Safari Group and custom designed by Studio 37, such as Auckland’s Victoria Street, Newmarket and Queenstown Central Ramada Hotels, share some important characteristics. They house a mixture of hotel accommodation and private apartments with sophisticated, highly functional floor plans, and they’re on sites carefully chosen for their strategic location. La Quinta Ellerslie’s proximity to the recently opened new railway link is not accidental. “The building goes hand in hand with our new railway system. It’s absolutely designed so that people don’t have to own a car. They can use that urban transport to access everything they need: work or school or the beach,” says Gary. Typical of developments done by Safari Group in collaboration with Studio 37 is that everything is on hand. The Central Park corporate precinct with its extensive hospitality offerings is just a minute’s walk from the lobby. Retail and office space supports the hotel accommodation on the first three levels, which comes complete with a fully equipped gymnasium and conference room. The remaining floors are given to apartments and a rooftop garden. Thanks to the building’s carefully planned orientation, every apartment has a living room offering panoramic views over Auckland and either morning or evening sun depending on which side they’re on. Because of the western side’s proximity to the motorway people could choose to replace a potentially very noisy deck with additional triple-glazed living space, while those lucky enough to be on the corners have unrivalled views across the city. The high-quality, low-maintenance, efficient building is designed with resilience capable of lasting 200 years. It’s a dynamic asset to the neighbourhood and Gary is full of appreciation for all those who helped make it a reality, he says. “We were working right through Covid, and I’d just like to thank all the teams who worked on it because it was gritty times. I’m grateful to everyone, from the Gib plasterers to the facade workers, absolutely everyone in the team did such an amazing job.”
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