A full renovation of an apartment in a classic Neutral Bay block: structural works, a new kitchen and bathrooms, and the period character kept. This one is still under construction, so what you see here is the build as it actually happens.
The owners came to us at the end of 2024 with an apartment in a classic Neutral Bay block and a clear ambition. They did not want the surfaces freshened. They wanted the apartment taken back and rebuilt properly: new wet areas, new finishes throughout, and structural changes to open up the plan.
Renovating inside an apartment building is a different discipline to renovating a house. This is a Class 2 building, which brings requirements a freestanding home never sees: strata approval before work starts, fire-rated construction around structural elements, certifier oversight throughout, and neighbours living on the other side of the walls while the work happens.
The owners have stayed close to every selection, working with their designer room by room. The period bones of the apartment, its archway, cornices and proportions, are staying. Everything behind them is being renewed.
A Class 2 renovation does not start with a sledgehammer. It starts with pre-construction: the working-out phase where design, approvals, compliance and cost get settled before anyone touches a wall. Here is what that looked like for Neutral Bay.
How Pre-Construction WorksOne of the first jobs of pre-construction was making sure the design team suited an apartment project, where structure, fire ratings and services all answer to a different rulebook. Design decisions were made with those rules in the room from the start.
In an apartment building the owners corporation has to approve the works before they begin. We prepared the strata application as part of pre-construction and had the approval in hand before the construction contract was signed, so the build could start without a fight.
The proposal went through several rounds as the design firmed up, each one re-costed and put back in front of the owners, with their expectations written into the final version. By contract day, the scope and the number told the same story.
The construction contract was signed at the end of pre-construction, once the design was resolved, the strata approval was granted and the certifier pathway was set. That order is the point: the building work started with the unknowns already dealt with.
Before anything on this page was built, every room was resolved with the owners' designer during pre-construction, down to the mosaic, the vanity and the tapware. This bathroom render is the benchmark; watch it become real further down.
Where it started: a solid but dated apartment in a classic Neutral Bay block. The owners chose to take it right back and rebuild, rather than freshen what was there.
Structural works inside an apartment building: new steel opening up the floor plan, propped and sequenced so everything above stays fully supported while the openings are made.
The pink board is the tell: in an apartment building, new structure gets encased in fire-rated linings. It is one of many compliance layers a Class 2 project carries that a house never sees.
Not everything goes. The archway and the period proportions stay, and here the paint colours are being tested on the walls around them.
One month on: colours chosen, walls painted, and the original cornice work carrying the new palette. This is the balance the whole project aims for.
The bathroom from the render at the top of this timeline, taking shape on site: the same mosaic going onto the wall tile by tile. When the design work is done properly up front, the build gets to follow it.
New photos are added as the build progresses · The finished apartment, coming soon
We document our projects as we build them: site walkthroughs, the details behind the walls, and the decisions that shape how a home performs. Follow along on Instagram, or join the Healthy Homes newsletter and we will bring the interesting parts to you.
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