I am a local who lives 100 metres or so from this site, (I live on Calvert Street, just opposite Calvert Lane).
For what it’s worth, I support the application (but it seems I may have missed the 3-week “support/oppose” window which isn’t surprising, given I never received notification and rarely walk this stretch of Victoria Road, despite how close I live to this building).
I support the plans because the designs show reasoned consideration and genuine respect for the legacy of the original building, and the Cadastral character of the Victoria Road streetscape, and displays sensitivity to the immediate neighbours’ privacy rights and solar access requirements and shows an overall sympathy towards the general harmony of the local community - and in particular, the architectural legacy of the neighbourhood - unlike the developers and design firm currently looking to demolish 10 Calvert Street to put up two unsuitably large semis that disregard local building guidelines and the style of dwellings on the immediate vicinity of the planned development.
For context, I was personally interested in what this Victoria Road application sought, because the developers and conceptual building designers of 10 Calvert Street appear to have taken aesthetic elements of the shared structure and attempted to use them in their first draft application designs (but only as a jump off point, that they then modified without porches, and instead added open decks that are positioned further forward than the ground floor front door position, and gave them upper windows and other elements that aesthetically jar given the prevailing style and aesthetics that govern the properties from 1-28 Calvert Street at the very least.
I hope the approvals for this Victoria Road residential improvement application happen, and I look forward to seeing the subtle, discreet changes and interesting modernisations if and when they finally come into being.
