10 Princes St
- Early contractor involvement and construction
- Building refurbishment and reclad
10 Princes St began life as the Otahuhu Courthouse before being repurposed into apartments in 2004. Over the years, the building had suffered multiple cracks to the cladding and was in a state of disrepair, leading to Brosnan’s engagement.
The main exterior works on the building included the replacement of the existing cladding, installing a new waterproofing membrane, remediation of existing balcony structures, and installing new balustrades.
The interior fit-out works included a complete refurbishment of all apartments and common areas. All walls and ceilings received a new paint system, and all the floor areas received new floor finishes.
The passive and active fire system was also upgraded to meet the current code requirements.
As many of the building’s records had been lost in a fire, designers relied on the original designs as the basis for the works. Unfortunately, the building was not built to the original design, which led to a significantly evolving brief.
On commencing works and discovering the building’s inadequate level of construction combined with design inaccuracies, the team was required to extensively redesign many key aspects. The major scope redevelopment involved seven consent amendments and at least 20 minor variations. Therefore, the eight-month programme became two years.
An additional challenge was the discovery of asbestos-containing material and the subsequent removal process of the asbestos, which Brosnan successfully managed.
Given the increased project duration, we initiated an internal refurbishment while we completed the external remediation works, which would have otherwise been carried out post-completion. This delivered a silver lining for the client by having both external remediation and internal works completed within the same timeframe.
