The Sydney property facing its past in style
This renovation of this estate-style Art Deco property is a masterclass of old meets new
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It’s one of the hottest looks right now, but Art Deco properties as beautiful as this are in short supply.
The residence at 19-21 Ellsmore Avenue in leafy Killara on Sydney’s north shore sits on a 1,517sqm block surrounded by carefully maintained parterre gardens and generous lawns.
Ideal for larger families, there are five bedrooms on offer, including four on street level and a fifth bedroom that could serve as a guest room or in-law accommodation on the lower floor.
With a generous, light-filled entry foyer and multiple living spaces, this is the perfect home for entertaining, whether it’s a casual get together with family or a more formal event.
The back of the house faces north east, with a formal pool the full length of the northern side of the property. There’s also an outdoor kitchen for alfresco dining.
Those accustomed to working from home will also appreciate the spacious home office with views to the garden.
However, while the floorplan ticks all the boxes in terms of practicalities, it’s the original Art Deco features that really set this property apart. Thoughtfully renovated to combine the best of old and new, the full-brick residence has retained, restored and gently updated features such as the curved lines, leadlight glass, coffered ceilings and marble fireplaces.
A state–of-the-art kitchen, floor-to-ceiling curtains, period architraves and a neutral palette recall the glamour of the period, ideally suited to 21st century living.
Located a stone’s throw from Killara Golf Club and within walking distance of schools, Lindfield Station and Harris Farm market, this is one property to keep on the radar.
Address: 19-21 Ellsmore Avenue, Killara
For sale
Open for inspection: 2pm Saturday, February 18
Agent: Jason Roach – 0448 455 556 The Agency, theagency.com.au
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
A new AI-driven account by leading landscape architect Jon Hazelwood pushes the boundaries on the role of ‘complex nature’ in the future of our cities
2 min
Drifts of ground cover plants and wildflowers along the steps of the Sydney Opera House, traffic obscured by meadow-like planting and kangaroos pausing on city streets.
This is the way our cities could be, as imagined by landscape architect Jon Hazelwood, principal at multi-disciplinary architectural firm Hassell. He has been exploring the possibilities of rewilding urban spaces using AI for his Instagram account, Naturopolis_ai with visually arresting outcomes.
“It took me a few weeks to get interesting results,” he said. “I really like the ephemeral nature of the images — you will never see it again and none of those plants are real.
“The AI engine makes an approximation of a grevillea.”
Hazelwood chose some of the most iconic locations in Australia, including the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, as well as international cities such as Paris and London, to demonstrate the impact of untamed green spaces on streetscapes, plazas and public space.
He said he hopes to provoke a conversation about the artificial separation between our cities and the broader environment, exploring ways to break down the barriers and promote biodiversity.
“A lot of the planning (for public spaces) is very limited,” Hazelwood said. “There are 110,000 species of plants in Australia and we probably use about 12 in our (public) planting schemes.
“Often it’s for practical reasons because they’re tough and drought tolerant — but it’s not the whole story.”
Hazelwood pointed to the work of UK landscape architect Prof Nigel Dunnett, who has championed wild garden design in urban spaces. He has drawn interest in recent years for his work transforming the brutalist apartment block at the Barbican in London into a meadow-like environment with diverse plantings of grasses and perennials.
Hazelwood said it is this kind of ‘complex nature’ that is required for cities to thrive into the future, but it can be hard to convince planners and developers of the benefits.
“We have been doing a lot of work on how we get complex nature because complexity of species drives biodiversity,” he said.
“But when we try to propose the space the questions are: how are we going to maintain it? Where is the lawn?
“A lot of our work is demonstrating you can get those things and still provide a complex environment.”
At the moment, Hassell together with the University of Melbourne is trialling options at the Hills Showground Metro Station in Sydney, where the remaining ground level planting has been replaced with more than 100 different species of plants and flowers to encourage diversity without the need for regular maintenance. But more needs to be done, Hazelwood said.
“It needs bottom-up change,” he said. ““There is work being done at government level around nature positive cities, but equally there needs to be changes in the range of plants that nurseries grow, and in the way our city landscapes are maintained and managed.”
And there’s no AI option for that.
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
