Auckland, 14 June 2024: Wellington’s Victoria Lane Apartments has won the Templeton Group Multi Unit Residential Property Award tonight. This was one of 11 Excellence and Best in Category awards handed out at the Property Council New Zealand Property Industry Awards, Aotearoa’s most prestigious property awards programme.
After the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake rocked Wellington, future-proofing and seismic resilience became a key consideration for future developments. In response, Willis Bond developed Victoria Lane Apartments, Wellington’s first base-isolated apartment building, setting a new standard for large-scale residential seismic resilience.
Located at 161 Victoria Street and part of Willis Bond’s transformational Cuba Precinct development, the 17-storey building houses 123 premium apartments, three levels of large open-plan office, ground floor retail and lobby spaces – all of which are sold.
This building is the first high-rise apartment complex in New Zealand that uses the combined technology of base isolation and diagrid frame and has raised the bar for seismic resilience in inner-city living. Designed to be re-occupiable after a major earthquake, the vision for the project is best-in-class futureproofing in a city with unique challenges and was the driving force behind the development.
The base-isolation diagrid added to the build cost but was ultimately outweighed by the long-term assurance value it added to buyers and tenants, standing as a unique selling point.
“The Victoria Lane Apartments exemplify a harmonious combination of structural excellence and residential comfort,” said Leonie Freeman, chief executive, Property Council New Zealand. “A huge amount of time and energy has been put into developing a site that has longevity and provides long term value to both Wellington City and its residents, an integral part of what modern infrastructure needs to be in the capital.”
Benefits of the structural design and resilience of the apartments also extend to sustainability. Despite the need to demolish the pre-existing earthquake-prone building, Victoria Lane Apartments’ embodied carbon is offset through the base isolation diagrid system, which reduces significant damage in a 1-in-500-year earthquake, potentially saving ~9,000T.CO2 from landfill, and minimising loss of life and valuables.
Operational emissions have been reduced through the use of LED lighting, low-flow water fittings and heating and cooling technology. Only selected apartments have heat pumps, offered as an ‘opt-in’ feature to further minimise greenhouse gas emissions.
Going beyond the facilities, Victoria Lane Apartments has established a friendly community of residents, with regular quiz nights and great floor friendships forming. Christmas was celebrated with drinks in the lobby, and residents have even asked when the building’s first birthday is so they could organise a celebration, standing as a testament to user satisfaction.
Victoria Lane Apartments and the wider precinct replace uninhabitable, earthquake-prone buildings with resilient, mixed-use offerings that have attracted around 1,000 new workers, homeowners, students and retailers to revitalise this much-loved area.
With Wellington’s population forecast to increase significantly over the next three decades, Victoria Lane Apartments represents density par excellence. It provides a substantial quantity of seismically safe, high-quality homes, workplaces, and retail spaces and nurtures its occupants, who enjoy an easy city lifestyle and openly love living in their new homes.
ENDS
Templeton Group Multi-Unit Residential Property Award
Best in Category: Victoria Lane Apartments
- Owner: Cuba Holdings Limited Partnership
- Developer: Willis Bond
- Construction: LT McGuinness
- Architect: Athfield Architects
- Structural engineer: Dunning Thornton
- Service/mechanical engineer: Beca
- Building enclosure engineer: Mott MacDonald
- Quantity surveyor: Barnes Beagley Doherr
- Project manager: RCP
- Geotechical engineer: Tonkin + Taylor
- Fire engineer: Holmes Fire
Excellence:
- Cambridge Quarter, One Central, Christchurch
- Te Rangihiroa, Dunedin
- The Blake, Auckland
- The Onehunga Mall Club, Auckland
- The Oxford Apartments, Christchurch
Merit:
- 245 Kepa, Auckland
- Aroha, Auckland
- College & Mason, Auckland
- Koa Flats, Auckland
- Manaaki, Auckland
- Milford 110, Auckland
- Richmond Fellow, Auckland