Arrowtown history’s being made next month when construction starts on the last unbuilt site in the township’s CBD precinct.

Local couple Gayle and Ian Hamilton, who live near Arrowtown, are developing a 743 square metre site between Arrow Lane and Wiltshire
Street, overlooking Buckingham Green and the Stables building, which they bought in 2019.

United Kingdom-registered architect Kirsten Gibbs, from heritage firm Origin Consultants — also based in Arrow Lane — has designed a building that’s broken into four gable-roofed cottages.

Reflecting the steep site, there are two interlinked cottages off Arrow Lane and two linked cottages higher up, off a leg-in driveway from Wiltshire St.

Ian says the building, with a floor area of 371sqm, has been fully leased for offices — one tenancy’s sharing the front cottages and separate tenants will occupy the two behind.

The final consented design was developed in consultation with the Arrowtown Planning Advisory Group (APAG).

In turn, it took into account the site’s Arrowtown residential historic management zoning and the 2016 Arrowtown design guidelines.

Gibbs, in her architectural design statement, calls it ‘‘a well-proportioned and modest, yet interesting and high-quality design’’.

The APAG report says ‘‘the development appears as a group of quite separate buildings that have been given different treatments in terms of cladding materials, window details, roofing materials, orientation and landscaping’’.

Fenced off: The section, including a protected tree, at right

The materials — including corrugated iron, stacked schist stone and vertical and horizontal weatherboards — are said to be ‘‘consistent with the Arrowtown vernacular’’.

And there’s a range of colours based on the heritage colour palette recommended by the Arrowtown design guidelines, while the landscaping’s said to ‘‘tie into the rambling overgrown look that is characteristic of [Arrow Lane]’’.

A distinctive feature, set back from the lane, is ‘‘a high-quality stone veneer’’ for the front wall, including a decorative timber door, along with stone steps and low stone walls.

The development also has to work around a large protected Lawson cypress ‘character tree’ along the western boundary, which local arborist Dave Finlin was consulted on.

The result, Ian Hamilton says, is ‘‘137sqm of our site is dedicated to root protection’’.

Another challenge is leaving alone a protected, fragile stone wall just west of the site, off Arrow Lane.

Ian says they’ve selected Naylor Love as their building contractor — completion’s due late next August.

Meanwhile, next year the Hamiltons are also developing a new Queenstown CBD retail building in Upper Beach St.

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