This building was really easy to get through Council and really hard to get built.
Nick Manettas is a client whose attention to detail in design challenged every part of the process; giving his trust in our sense of materials and aesthetics.
The solid base forms represent the building's weight touching the ground and the top forms are like a crystal light structure reflecting and refracting the light of the sky and the street. A five-storey foyer presents a shadow of space in a busy street.
"For gods perceive future things, mortals present things and wise men things about to happen."
In walking through a city, a moment's punctuation can change one's life forever. A moment can turn into a second of consciousness. At 61 York Street, the past and future meld into one in a composition that is defined by a familiar and contemporary dimension of 2.4m; a dimension that translates to all measures of the building; all proportions; all elements. The composition is refined by the relation of "rondo" in musical composition in both vertical and horizontal reading.
Like the structure of the human body, the building's surface provides many clues as to its form and where the structure emerges; it is raw and transparent as a form that holds.
