SCHOOL ZONES:
Bayfield Primary School, Ponsonby Intermediate, Auckland Girls' Grammar and Western Springs College.
CONTACT:
Chris Batchelor, Barfoot & Thompson, ph 021 217 7026.
FEATURES:
Three-storey architecturally designed house constructed in concrete block/plaster system with cavity. Unobstructed west-facing sea views, separate laundry, self-contained one-bedroom downstairs dwelling, underfloor heating, small boatshed with fold-down ramp. Outdoor fireplace. Off-street parking for two cars.
Property developer, the late Derrick Hurst, had his sights set on a grand statement for a water's edge west-facing home and, in the end, he was brilliantly rewarded for his choice of location.
In the months before he passed away late last year, he'd lie back and enjoy the passageof the clouds making their way across the horizon above Cox's Bay.
By night, it was the deep orange sunsets hunkering down beyond the hills that bathed the living areas, each of the bedrooms and even the downstairs apartment, with a simmering glow.
It is those sunsets that have been among Inger and Finn Hurst's favourite memories in the home that was their father's dream project and the fourth such venture that he and North Shore architect Graham Pitts collaborated on.
Says Finn of his father, who co-founded the Kitchener Group; "He got excited about every project but definitely more so with this one. Right from the start we knew this was his dream home. He'd wake up and see the sea. He loved it here."
Derrick expected to have his own boundaries pushed on every project and Pitts didn't disappoint, knowing that every element of surprise would be greeted with enthusiasm.
This three-storey concrete/plaster system home sits at an angle on the steeply sloping site and its lofty scale comes into view beyond the automatic gates at the end of the shared drive.
At entry level, the front door - more than 5m high - pivots at a light touch to open into a double-height vaulted entry. Up ahead, the entry is framed by the upstairs bridge to the bedrooms across the north face of the house. Up on that carpeted landing off the polished concrete stairs, the upper portion of the metal form of the front door becomes a textural backdrop alongside neutral painted walls. Pitts specified cedar and American cherrywood for the interior doors.
Elsewhere, the matching timber for the wine racks, the kitchen cabinetry and the frames of the glass cavity sliding doors that close off the lounge add timeless appeal to the contemporary style.
Throughout the house, full-height doors are repeated. You even see them in the wall of storage in the laundry and in the wall of cupboards in the hall between the guest bedrooms. Every bedroom has a sea view. The master bedroom and the adjacent guest bedroom each have their own tiled deck, connected by a tiled walkway.
The largest deck, with an outdoor fireplace, opens off the dining room on the opposite side of the kitchen.
The lounge itself is a step down looking straight out to the west, near enough to the kitchen for easy entertaining but neatly separated to give it its own seaward focal point.
From the main entry, polished concrete stairs lead down to a self-contained apartment that has the same palette of materials as the rest of the house, including white tiles in the bathroom and timber in the kitchen and bathroom cabinetry.
Finn and Inger both went travelling through Europe just after Derrick moved in here in 2004, returning home for occasional holidays during their three years away.
Besides seeing their dad, a big part of the temptation to come home lay down the path through the bush, and a little further down 15 steps beside a rope and bollard fence, to a jetty and small boatshed with a fold-up ramp.
"This was a pretty incredible place to come back to because it was right by the water," Finn explains. "It really reinforced our desire to move back home for good."
