Green Screen

This 2025 façade refurbishment represented the completion of the Bell Hill Apartments that opened in 2021.

The surviving limestone and plaster detail had been painted many times to hinder further erosion, and to protect the structure from water ingress. 

A common approach for refurbishment of heritage-listed facades is to restore the decorative detail to original condition and highlight that detail with a complex palette of heritage colours; a legitimate approach, but an expensive one. 

I chose a different approach; stabilise and paint the façade with a single colour allowing the changing natural light to illuminate its sculptural qualities.  Stabilizing involved new flashings, repair of cracks, plaster and masonry, finished with a high-build paint system.   No attempt was made to rebuild lost detail or to remove redundant metal fixings – we painted over the lot.

Design rationale; it is the critical success of the commercial activity within the building (Bell Hill Apartments) that ensures its survival, not the extent to which the façade has been restored.  The result; enhanced guest experience and re-establishment of the building’s street presence.

Original window sashes that were removed earlier to create an open loggia for the apartments, are replaced by bronze window boxes containing purple Heuchera plants in terracotta pots - an up-close delight for apartment guests.  These combined with the gold leaf-pattern privacy film on the lower level windows creates a dynamic colour story in the streetscape.

After extensive colour research and experimenting, we settled of a green that is deep, dignified, and subdued. A green that would reference the rock of the South Island, New Zealand: a façade that conceptually could have been sculpted from greenstone itself.