Two 1930s Art Deco facades on Campbell Parade had to stay exactly where they were. Everything behind them came down.
That was the brief at Mariposa, 246–248 Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach. It is a heritage-listed Inter-War flat building, raised in two stages in 1934 and 1938, within the Bondi Beach Urban Conservation Area. Trescon has now completed its restoration, with eleven boutique apartments delivered behind the retained frontage.
The structure came first. Both street facades were needled through the existing masonry and braced back to temporary supports, holding the heritage fabric in place while the building behind them was demolished and an entirely new structure built in its place. Once the new building could carry the load, the temporary works came out. The facades were then restored against a documented 1930s baseline. Original render, masonry, and Western Red Cedar joinery were repaired under a Burra Charter conservation methodology.
Behind the restored frontage, Luigi Rosselli Architects designed the eleven apartments, with interiors by Handelsmann + Khaw. Conservation was guided by John Oultram Heritage & Design, and structural engineering by Partridge.
Mariposa was also a different kind of project to a developer build. The client was the building's own owners, acting through a Building Committee with project manager Willow Frank. This is a strata-renewal model, where existing owners fund the rebuild of their own building rather than sell out to a developer. It is an approach gaining ground as Sydney's ageing apartment stock reaches the point where doing nothing is no longer an option.
The result is a restored streetscape on one of Bondi's best-known addresses, with eleven contemporary residences behind it.
Architect: Luigi Rosselli Architects
Interiors: Handelsmann + Khaw
Managed by: Willow Frank
Built by: Trescon
You can explore the completed project here.
