New Zealand Commercial Design Trends Series NZ Commercial Design Trends Vol. 33/03C | Page 100

Project
Giltrap Group building
Location:
Auckland
Architect:
Warren and Mahoney Architects
JEWELS IN THE CROWN
Three unique car brands are prominently displayed along the street frontage of this
building – establishing an identity for each within its own jewellery box showroom
High-end retail ideally takes place in a high-end
setting that’s appropriate for potential high-end
customers. While that’s not unusual in leading
fashion retail outlets, its not always the case when it
comes to top car brands – despite price tags
running into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
With such a small niche market, creating a
statement showroom in which to display the
vehicles doesn’t often stack up.
That can’t be said of the new Giltrap Group
showroom building in the middle of Auckland’s
Great North Road strip of car dealerships.
Giltrap Group joint managing director Michael
Giltrap says that bringing three premium brands –
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Lamborghini, Aston Martin and Bentley – together
in one building helped make the development of a
signature building viable.
“What also contributed was making the building
multi-use,” says Giltrap. “As well as our own office
floor above the showrooms, there are two other
commercial office floors for lease.”
However, this meant the building also needed
parking for these commercial floors, as well as vehicle
storage and service floors for the three dealerships.
“The important thing for us, was that the cars
could be shown off to everyone – not just custom-
ers, but also to anyone passing by in the street.”
That level of interaction was taken a step further
Previous and these pages:For
the Giltrap Group building, Warren
and Mahoney Architects designed
a substantial expressed diagonal
frame to brace the building.
Setting this back from the main
facade allowed the creation of
three glazed ‘jewellery boxes’ –
one for each of the premium car
brands displayed in the ground
floor showrooms.