SOMA APARTMENTS:

HELPING TO CREATE AN ADDITIONAL FLOOR WITHOUT IMPACTING THE CONSTRUCTION PROGRAMME

The Soma Apartments is a 6-storey apartment complex in MacKelvie Street, Ponsonby. In addition to city living, it comprises retail space and car parking on the ground floor.

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We were engaged by the contractor to undertake the structural engineering for this development.

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Benefits of having us on the team:​

​We were able to innovate by:

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• The client wanted large open spaces at ground level. In order to facilitate this we made the inter-tenancy walls concrete so that they could support the spans, preventing the need for additional columns.

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• When the project was in the early stages of construction, the new Unitary Plan was released. As a result the client wanted an additional storey adding onto the building. We reviewed and amended our structural design for building consent within a tight timeframe of 6 weeks, which meant the construction programme remained on schedule. This extra floor resulted in 9 additional apartments, giving the client 25% more apartment space than was originally planned.

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• The client and our project partners had director level access throughout the project, which resulted in us being able to make fast decisions and respond quickly.