Harris Park

Current
109a Wigram Street, Harris Park
Commercial
2 retail tenancies and 41 new gen boarding rooms
Nestled along the eastern gateway to the Parramatta CBD is 109a Wigram Street, Harris Park. A luxury new generation boarding house development, consisting of 41 fully self contained rooms and 2 retail tenancies that are a stones throw from the bustling Parramatta CBD. Sitting on the prominent corner position of Wigram Street and Parkes Street on an allotment of just 300 square meters is this PBD masterpiece. A building like no other in its locality that dares to explore brilliant curvature and the a fusion of natural and built environments, with its raw materials, open breezeways, living walls and heavy presence of exotic planting.
A large emphasis during the design phase was placed on using a combination of sustainable and low maintenance materials that would reduce the ongoing maintenance cost of the building but without detracting from the overall aesthetic. The external façade is predominantly face brick, Ultra Smooth range provided by Austral. The Ultra Smooth Jazz which is the darker brown coloured brick has been used externally. However in fear of darkening the open breezeway lobbies the Ultra Smooth Tempo was used internally, a contrasting cream coloured brick to help brighten the internal areas for visibility. Using two completely different colour bricks presents many obstacles, particularly on how to achieve a balance and aesthetically pleasing transition.
In order to overcome this obstacle, brick feathering was introduced. Brick feathering allows the two different bricks to be blended gradually over a specific distance until the dark brick is completely feathered out and only the light brick remains. There is also vast use of raw off form concrete throughout the development, including the building core, planter boxes and spandrel walls. The use of concrete and brick provides an extremely low maintenance building façade that is still all the yet striking. The use of aluminium timber look blades also provides the look and feel of natural timber without the constant maintenance and upkeep that accompanies it.
Atriums and landscaping collide on this project with an internal atrium spanning 9 metres starting in the level 3 lobby and spiralling to the level 5 lobby ceiling with internal palms and low maintenance ground cover planting. Similarly there is a 7 storey external atrium on the southern elevation which encompasses two living walls that span 20 metres each. Installed by Junglefy, the walls embody high moisture retaining plans which are fed and maintained by a fully automatic irrigation and nutrient dosing system as well as artificial lighting that will aid sustainability in the event that the prospective neighbouring developments obstruct natural light from the walls.
The internal finishes of this project are dissimilar to any other boarding house development in its category. Havwoods European floors have been used throughout, laid in a straight pattern in conjunction with low maintenance recessed P50 shadow line skirtings.
There is an excessive amount of storage, wardrobe, desk and kitchen space in each room. All of which are comprised of polyurethane shaker door and veneer synergy, with designer stone 40 millimetre benchtops and splashbacks. There is an architectural focus specifically on harnessing an abundance of natural lighting through window design and orientation, particularly the curved windows which capture the changing angles of the light throughout the day.

A mixture of honed natural stone in Carrara mosaics and Terrazzo floor tiles combine with Parisi fixtures and fittings to create the ultimate European bathrooms. Fully farmless shower screens and brushed brass highlights throughout provide a luxe feeling for the occupier, with architecturally design and custom made LED lit shaving cabinets throughout, built by Parisi, these bathrooms personify bespoke.