Former Yarra Park primary school
Project
The project included the adaptive reuse of a two storey public school building for residential apartments and residential infill, including terraces, cottages and apartments, on what was the school grounds.
Site
The site is in the north east corner of Yarra Park on land reserved for parkland by Governor La Trobe in 1856. The site is bounded by two arterial roads with Punt Road to the east and Wellington Parade on the north. The west wing of Yarra Park Primary School was completed in 1874 and the east wing in 1877. The existing school building is in the Tudor style with distinctive polychromatic brickwork. It is a key corner site with very prominent facades on both streets. The school is significant in the history of Victorian education as one of the first schools built following the adoption of the Education Act 1872 that enabled compulsory secular education in Victoria.
Challenge
The original school building is of architectural and historical significance and it was important that a curtilage which recognised and respected this significance was protected. The contrasting economic imperative for this inner city site was to optimise the amount of medium density development. Maximising the use of the site would require providing a variety of housing types and parking for the new residents.
Solutions
The curtilage was protected by creating a new road which separated the new terraces and apartments from the original building. External changes to the original school involved replacing a large weatherboard extension at the rear of the building with brick. This is readable as a new addition through the change of brick type and linear patterns, in particular the exaggerated lintels. The school verandah has been enclosed by a glazed wall, serving the dual purpose of a light well and providing a mostly unobstructed view of the original verandah.
The infill development is visually related to the original building through the use of materials, in particular the red brick walls with contrasting decorative brick work around the windows. A simplified version of the school’s roof form was used on the single storey cottages. Neighbouring the new terraces are original Victorian terraces. At the street front, the new building borrows site lines from the terraces and the scale of the window openings. At the rear the new apartments, terraces and studios are setback from the laneway. The inclusion of a row of street trees and the street presence of the laneway extensions to the Victorian terraces has created an intimate and welcoming ambiance on the new laneway. Basement parking was provided for 73 cars, freeing more space above ground for new housing.
Lessons
The adaptive reuse of the school into apartments afforded the opportunity for further compatible medium density development on the remainder of the site. Housing the growing population of Melbourne requires innovative solutions and maximising the use of land assets. New medium residential density development can be compatible with the retention of a heritage place when design has a visual relationship with the existing built structures and retains enough space around the original building for its heritage significance to be appreciated.