The 811 square metre site had been owned by the Mathews family since the early 1970’s, and was used as a car park by nearby businesses up until construction commenced in 2002. In 1998 several family members (including this author) formed a company, Gore Street Properties Pty Ltd, with a view to developing the site. The members of the company had a strong interest in environmental and social issues, and were keen to apply these principles to the project.
The site’s location, in an area with some high heritage values falling under the Yarra council’s ‘Development Guidelines for Heritage Places’, required that the appearance of the building be respectful of this heritage context, without reproducing the architecture of the past.