This mid-rise apartment project in Takapuna had the potential for major headaches. For a start, the site, a former Housing New Zealand enclave near Lake Pupuke, was a particularly tight one, with neighbours that include a nursery school and cancer clinic,& along with long-established residences. Those sensitivities were then magnified by the discovery of extensive areas of basalt prior to the civil works phase, meaning that every one of the 147 retention piles had to be drilled through solid rock, followed by a significant programme of rock breaking to prepare the way for the basement foundations. Add to that mix the difficulties posed by the Auckland construction boom, high client expectations, restricted operating hours and the late unavailability of the preferred crane option, and it’s fair to say the heat was on.

The complexities weren’t wholely unexpected, however. This pair of four-storey apartment buildings, which between them include 54 high-quality private units, were the fruit of a larger public-private partnership between Willis Bond & Co and Housing New Zealand that began with the construction of a 16-unit social housing block on nearby Killarney St. That development had also involved difficult site restrictions and