10 Princes Street

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.

The main exterior works carried out by Brosnan included replacing the existing cladding, installing a new waterproofing membrane, remediating 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 the floor areas received new 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, leading to a significantly evolving brief.

On commencing works and discovering the building’s inadequate level of construction, coupled with design inaccuracies, the team was required to redesign many key aspects extensively. The primary scope redevelopment involved seven consent amendments and 20 minor variations. Therefore, the eight-month programme became two years.

An additional challenge was discovering asbestos-containing material and the subsequent process of safely removing the asbestos, which Brosnan successfully managed.

Given the increased project duration, we initiated an internal refurbishment while completing the external remediation works, which would have otherwise been carried outpost-completion. This delivered a silver lining for the client by completing exterior remediation and internal works within the same timeframe.

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