Central Property People Awards Finalist - Latitude Residences | Harrison Grierson Urban Design

With Property Council New Zealand’s Central Property People Awards just around the corner, we are pleased to celebrate the nomination of Latitude Residences for the Harrison Grierson Urban Design Award, with the project team Form Building & Developments Ltd, TYBI Limited, and Ignite.

Inspired by the beauty of Tauranga and its surroundings, Latitude Residences is a six-storey apartment building comprising 28 elegant one, two, and three-bedroom apartments with two large penthouses at the top level. As the name suggests, there’s latitude to adapt to different lifestyles, with flexible layouts that cater for professionals as well as down-sizers. Residents enjoy a strong visual connection to Tauranga’s scenic outdoors with commanding views of Robbins Park and Tauranga Harbour, while being just a three-minute walk from the CBD dining precinct.

The development plays a key role in the rejuvenation and intensification of the city centre – Latitude Residences is a landmark project for Tauranga and the first of its kind in a decade, meeting the demand for high-quality apartment buildings in the CBD, a reflection of how Tauranga is maturing as a city. The bespoke city fringe living environment offers recreation, retail offerings, and business proximity.

Upon attending the opening of the building then Mayor of Tauranga Tenby Powell echoed the positive impact of the project on the local area: “the scale and quality of this development is exactly what Tauranga deserves and it was a pleasure to formally open Latitude Apartments this morning. We need to encourage and enable more such developments in downtown Tauranga to enable people to live in what will become one of New Zealand’s most desirable suburbs.”

This project has brought together a core group of talented personnel that has created an environment of shared learnings that will enable ongoing delivery of high density projects critical to the city living area.

Tauranga’s population has doubled over the past two decades; Latitude Residences responds to the need for high-quality CBD apartment residences. The site overlooks Robbins Park, offering panoramic views across Tauranga Harbour. Site orientation maximises access to views and sunlight for apartments and their living spaces, while simultaneously addressing proximity to neighbours and avoiding significant overlooking or shading with intentional setbacks in the building footprint from abutting residential dwellings.

As part of Tauranga’s long-term plan to revitalise the city centre, Latitude Residences have been developed on a brownfield site on the corner of Cliff Road and Park Street. The site was originally home to a 1970s two-level terraced housing development, which was demolished to make way for medium density living.

Medium to high-density solutions are critical to responding to Tauranga’s phenomenal growth. Ignite and Veros were engaged to develop a comprehensive multi-unit apartment complex, catering for various bedrooms and price points, and with a high-quality finish internally and externally. As the first major apartment build in Tauranga in a decade, Latitude Residences showcase the strategic benefits of urban intensification and activating the waterfront.

The site location is well resourced for existing amenity. The most effective and natural way to service residents’ requirements is to use existing amenities in the area. Latitude Residences is a walk away from Tauranga Domain, Rose Gardens, The Strand, and CBD. Proximity to public transport and the business centre promotes activity-based transport like walking and cycling. Secure bike parks are provided in the basement.

Low maintenance and durable materials respond to the coastal environment and local lifestyle. Latitude’s footprint configuration pushed the scheme closer to the street edge to strengthen the street definition, enable better outlooks and daylight access, and achieve car parking requirements to the rear.

Latitude Residences has successfully brought people back to the CBD. Putting people at the heart of the city will continue to revitalise and increase vibrancy to the community. Being the first build of its kind in 10 years, Latitude Residences demonstrates not only a solution to higher density living, but an increased level of sustainability by developing on existing brownfield sites.

The success of the project was that each party shared the same vision but played different roles in collectively achieving a totally integrated approach to delivery of this significant project. Simply, the key objective was to deliver an optimised housing development that met modern design and living ideals but ensured a high-quality final product.

Latitude Residences created a market that was otherwise not currently active, for high quality apartments in the Tauranga city centre. In a provincial New Zealand market, in particular Tauranga, where an apartment building of any scale has not been delivered for a 10-year period, the right team and expertise was critical to the success of the project. A range of smart solutions were employed by the project team to ensure a 5-star product could be delivered in this market.

The design approach adopted at the time is non-traditional, although is now being adopted at an increasing rate by the government and the wider industry. This involved a fast tracked and collaborative design process to produce a quality and standard of building that could be delivered through a traditional design build contract, without compromising on quality outcomes. This took energy, buy-in, and a lot of experience from the project team to ensure a 5-star apartment development could be delivered with this methodology.

The combined procurement approach of the project team working closely throughout allowed for efficiencies and practical building experience to be integrated into the design at an early stage. This undoubtedly led to cost savings and better decisions around viability and design.

Working in a design-build capacity required a collaborative approach to design coordination. Regular design delivery meetings and Revit-based workshops with key decision-makers where held, leading to efficient design decisions.

Ultimately this project was led by a team that displayed real leadership and an unwavering commitment to the success of the project. Critical team thinking was shown through all facets of the project, underpinned by excellent communication between all parties.