SCHOOL ZONES:
Freemans Bay
School, Ponsonby Intermediate,
Auckland Girls' Grammar School,
Western Springs College.
CONTACT:
Angela Saunders, Ray
White Ponsonby, ph 376 2186, 021 448
900.
FEATURES:
A stylishly renovated
1960s townhouse in the popular
Freemans Park development, with three
bedrooms upstairs (one currently used
as a study) and open-plan living area
downstairs, opening via bifolds to a
private landscaped courtyard.
A theory doing the rounds of hip, young city professionals is: everyone knows someone who has once lived in the precinct of apartments and townhouses at the bottom of Hepburn St, Freemans Bay.
Helen Jones and Andrew Meiring are believers. Helen, who has owned a townhouse in Freemans Park for11 years, says it's amazing how many people she meets who have a connection to the complex of former council housing.
The attractions are obvious. The modernist 1960s homes have been widely praised as a breakthrough in urban housing design - clean-lined, stylish and solid, with concrete-block construction and native wood flooring, and arranged to give the residents both privacy and a sense of community. Green spaces and trees create a buffer between the homes and the city, and although Western Park is on the boundary of the complex, the CBD and Ponsonby Rd are an easy walk away.
These were the things that first brought Helen to Hepburn St. She had recently returned from living overseas and had fallen in love with Freemans Bay for its central location. "I was actually a stalker. I would cruise the streets looking for "For Sale" signs," she says.
Naturally, Helen knew someone who lived in Freemans Park, so when a For Sale sign appeared outside a sunny townhouse on the end of a block within the precinct, she knew it was worth investigating. "I was interested in the architectural significance [of the homes]. They're unique in that there's been a real effort to keep their architectural integrity."
The townhouse had an open-plan living area downstairs, with bifold doors that provided almost seamless flow to a private north-east facing courtyard. It had three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs plus a separate laundry downstairs. It felt safe - important to Helen as a young, single woman - and it had the security of a strong sense of community and a well-managed body corp."It's a lovely community," says Helen. "There are a lot of like-minded people; people in creative industries: architects, artists, designers. You can be as much a part of it as you want to be. I can participate as much as I want to, or be quite private."
The house has seen Helen comfortably through a couple of demographic changes. A few years after she bought it, Andrew, an architect, moved in. The couple did some minor renovations - renovated the kitchen and bathroom, built new wardrobes and storage, ripped up cork tiles and carpet and revived the tawa floors throughout. They also painted, installed recessed lighting, bought stylish light fittings and created a lush subtropical garden.
Andrew says it didn't need a lot of work. The previous owner, also an architect, had added touches of genius, including bifold doors downstairs and a skylight above the stairs, which adds to the home's light and airy feel.
When baby Alexander came along, leisurely dinners at popular neighbourhood restaurant Nishiki - a two-minute walk away - gave way to fluffies up on Ponsonby Rd.
"The house was brilliant for a baby," says Helen. And now that Alexander's three he has a good network of playmates in the complex, whom Andrew regularly rounds up for games of soccer.
The family is leaving because Andrew had a hankering to design a family home from scratch, in Westmere. "This has been a great place to live," says Helen. "But we wanted to build something of our own."
