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Perhaps it's The Astor's address - on prestigious Macquarie Street, Sydney, -with never to be built easterly views over the Botanic Gardens to the Harbour - that makes the building so special. Or the notoriety it has achieved over the years by being home to a string of personalities such as Barry Humphries and Portia Geach. Whatever the reason, ever since its completion in 1923 The Astor has held a special place among high-rise apartment buildings.
As well as being considered the ultimate in luxury and prestige, the building was also remarkable for its many innovative features. Constructed in what was then a revolutionary new product - reinforced concrete - it was claimed to be the tallest building of its kind in Australia. It also had large, reversible steel-framed windows that were easily cleaned. Residents could dine in without leaving their apartment, courtesy of dumb waiters that linked each of the four apartments on the thirteen floors to a restaurant on the lower ground floor. Residents' needs were also catered to by four shops under the building, including a florist, a general store and a hairdresser (a hairdressing salon is still there today, along with a drycleaner. A live-in caretaker not only looked after the premises but also managed a team of 'attendants' who could be hired by the residents for cleaning and other duties.
The Astor was also Sydney's first co-operative (later renamed company) title building. John O'Brien, a grazier turned property developer, was the man behind it and the residential co-operative scheme he devised as a way of raising the status of apartment ownership. He formed a company called Astor Ltd and invited the wealthy to show interest in the scheme. While this was in train, a competition was held to design the building and was won by the architectural partnership of Donald Esplin and Stuart Mould.
The Astor's front facade is classically elegant and restrained, like its cousin, the Montreaux in Manly, which Esplin had designed six years earlier. A deep light well (since partially enclosed) penetrates the building from its rear boundary, providing light to the apartments on each floor and ventilation to those at the rear. The apartments all have generously sized rooms With tall ceilings but the original layout of each was awkward, with dining rooms behind living rooms, and wide entry hallways and lobbies taking up valuable internal space. The original bathrooms and kitchens were also tiny.
This apartment, in the front southern corner of the building, was refurbished only a few years ago by designer lain Halliday of Burley Katon Halliday. The result deviates from, the company's usually minimalist look with an interior that is sumptuous and rich, in keeping with the owners' shared love of Paris, Chanel and Versace clothes. Halliday has mirrored many surfaces, which visually extends the space, including the walls of the remodelled kitchen and dressing room, a new wet bar beside the living room, and the pair of concertina doors that separate the main bedroom from the living room. There is something about these crisp mirrored surfaces that fits perfectly with the age of the building.
Halliday also remodelled the apartment, improving on a previous renovation by rationalising bulkheads and aligning trims to better link the sequence of the rooms. The original architects would no doubt have approved of the narrow boiserie-style timber moulding that's been applied to the dining room walls and classic dentil cornices that give the apartment the grandeur it deserves.
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