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Project architects Richard Wood and Bruce
Trethowan explain the challenge of a project
highly tailored for client and clientele.
Why the Flinders Lane address with most
prestige labels in Collins St.?
BT: The location is interesting because the
parallel in New York for instance, is that the
more edgy retail isn’t located in Fifth Avenue,
but in areas such as Soho. That’s one of the
benefits of being on the back of Collins St. It has
the breathing space here for it’s own sense of
place and as architects we wanted to highlight
that position.
The city is bursting with development – much of
it expedient. It’s encouraging to see a project so
attuned to and respectful of the original urban
texture.
RW: There was an opportunity not to simply stack
the top of the building with a heap of additional
floors. The result is much more in context with
the way the city was, so it does have a terrific
sense of scale and respect for history.
How challenging is it to create a store with a
much more authentic relationship to the city?
BT: It was important for the architecture to fit
the store. The result looks as though it could
be in Paris, or Melbourne as it once was. That
classical façade gives clients the opportunity to
just come along and slot right in so it offers this
really accessible, wonderful fit. There was quite
a challenge about installing a retailer because it
originally had so many columns on the ground
floor. We had to eliminate columns and that
required some pretty complex strengthening of
ceiling beams.
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