Image Credit : Alicia Taylor
Project Overview
From a farm colony in the 18th century to the birth of the city ‘where the eels lie down’. The Lennox Parramatta Residences set a new precedent in Parramatta, a city with booming economic growth.
The Lennox Parramatta is a 46-storey luxury residential tower built on significant archaeological land. The commanding landmark received a Design of Excellence accolade from the city council and is home to over 1000 residents. The property was designed and built to revitalise the riverfront and is the first to offer hotel-quality amenities to residents in the western suburbs.
The Lennox provides status to a new market demographic providing access to modern luxury to the culturally diverse community. Each residence presents as a luxurious and timeless home, highlighting exceptional views of the world below. Careful consideration of fine details paired with ample choice in the unique and intuitive floor plans. Every residence boasts a bespoke layout and aesthetic.
The interiors were carefully curated to bind a luxurious resort-like style with an inviting residential vibe. The commanding structure is both impressive to the eye and warm to the touch, a unique offering in dense apartment living in a place where riverside and city vibe collide.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Builder: EQ Constructions
Developer: Novm
Architect: Marchese Partners and JPW Architects
LandPlanner: JBA
Interior Designer: Lorena Gaxiola
Project Brief
Parramatta is the western answer to Barangaroo and The Lennox Residences are the epitome of premium riverside living in Sydney’s west.
The Lennox is located along the Parramatta River in an iconic heritage-listed site that contains major archaeological significance to the community. A twelve-month process took place to ensure the archaeological preservation of artifacts from Aboriginal and European settlers.
The iconic location of the 120-year-old Lennox Bridge provided the inspiration for the vertical residences. Materials such as sandstone and timber were utilised to draw parallels to the bridge and Parramatta’s riverfront. The Lennox is revitalising the public domain in Parramatta. The main lobby of the residential building has 3 pedestrian entry points, and this created a significant challenge for interior design. We had to select materials that could withstand commercial traffic but warm and luxurious enough to be inviting, decorative and reminiscent of a residential building.
The entire property was carefully curated to showcase a seamless integration between the architecture and the interior design. The volume of the architecture transcends into the grand lobby where a rock-like ceiling helps reduce volume. The hand-carved feature was transported as a single item and is both decorative and functional as it helps reduce noise. The Paramatta river also takes a major presence in the décor with motifs in the lobby, corridors, and rooftop.
Project Innovation/Need
The Lennox is setting a new precedence in Sydney’s western suburbs giving the multicultural community an opportunity to own part of history.
The interiors were thoughtfully designed to transcend with time and to avoid the need for renovation for decades to come. Showcasing native elements to help anchor the commanding property with Parramatta’s history, the present commercial boom, and its buzzing future.
The building itself features many specifications that elevate both the design and efficiency with expansive uses of natural resources of native Australian materials such as sandstone and timber species.
Adherence to the Australian strict building sustainability index (basix) enforcing energy, water and greenhouse reduction.
The Lennox is home to Australia’s first automatic robotic car park systems where we elevated the interior design to create a sense of grandeur from arrival. The entire basement was designed with thoughtfulness to recreate a VIP valet vibe where even the car lift was customised to enhance the unique technological experience.
The public amenities were designed for social connectivity and to be utilised as an extension to the apartments. The styling and materials are tied to the entire building yet durable and ample to be enjoyed by hundreds of people at any given time from the automated carpark entry to the green rooftop bar.
Design Challenge
Below are some of the projects’ severe construction challenges that needed extensive design development and engineering to solve extraordinary issues.
• Creating a warm and inviting residential feel to 44 levels of apartment corridor space.
• Built during Covid restrictions, access to volume product, and low supply chain.
• Create a unique experience to Australia’s first robotic car parking technology and evoke a sense of trust and excitement.
• Manage and maintain cohesive design principles across the different collaborative teams. From architecture to interiors, from structural to certifiers.
• Deliver authenticity from concept to turnkey with minimal variations.
• Service the design management scope during a developers’ ownership transition with minimal disruption.
• Design 414 apartments in over two dozen varying styles, layouts, and budgets.
• Select materials that could withstand heavy commercial traffic with a residential feel.
• Site proximity to two major sewer sites that service over four hundred thousand residences.
• The building’s perimeter retaining wall system was designed to keep the river out and the site dry.
• Close proximity to fibre-optic cables servicing the Australian defence authority.
• Historic significance. A twelve-month process took place to ensure the archaeological preservation of artifacts from Aboriginal and European settlers.
• Adherence to Australia’s strict Sepp 65 Planning and Environment guideless ensuring maximum natural ventilation, sunlight and energy efficiency.
• Excavation of nearly 100 feet below ground to host Australia’s first robotic parking valet system for residents to retrieve their vehicles in minutes.
Sustainability
To be sustainable we focused on creating functional public amenities that residents can use and enjoy as an extension of their apartments.
The inspiration was drawn from the building design itself and from its Australian surroundings. The colour and materials palette is natural and organic native to our local landscape showcasing elements like sandstone and warm timbers mixed with metals such as bronze and iron throughout. A much softer palette than you would normally expect to find in these types of high-end tower developments. Usually, they tend to be cold and monochromatic. But this is where the Lennox stands out, it is very warm and earthy-toned, which in turn creates a luxurious and tactile interior.
Every area throughout the property displays the same palette for a cohesive flow, with a strong focus on an indoor/outdoor feel. With a green rooftop terrace, designed with river-like elements and a park life ambience in the sky to give residents an inviting place to play and connect socially. A zen garden opens to the gym to bring natural light and fresh airflow to the health and wellness areas and a pool with indoor-outdoor use.
Every apartment has an opportunity to connect with nature from the materials used to the green views out the balconies.
Interior Design - Residential
This award celebrates innovative and creative building interiors with consideration given to space creation and planning, furnishings, finishes and aesthetic presentation. Consideration also given to space allocation, traffic flow, building services, lighting, fixtures, flooring, colours, furnishings and surface finishes.
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