PC Channel Islands

Guernsey’s number one choice for luxury living

One St. Julian’s Avenue, Guernsey
Written by Roma Publications

One St. Julian’s Avenue, Guernsey

Comprising 32 prestigious luxury apartments – all with exceptionally large living spaces, light, airy and contemporary interiors, and world-class views, One St. Julian’s Avenue is Guernsey’s number one choice for luxury living, with around 65 per cent of the apartments already sold.

Constructed on the former Vauxlaurens Brewery site and ideally located close to the financial sector and capital, St Peter Port, the development includes 29 local market one and two bedroom apartments and three open market penthouses. All have an exceptional outlook towards Candie Gardens and across the East coast of Guernsey – enjoying some of the best views in the island.

One St. Julian’s Avenue, Guernsey

Each apartment and penthouse has been designed to the highest standards with high quality fixtures, fittings and finishes throughout, including white silk-brushed oak flooring, state-of-the-art lighting and underfloor heating systems. Other features include superb Mobalpa kitchens, fully tiled bathrooms with Villeroy and Bosch fittings, walnut doors, frames and architraves, the very latest home automation features such as video door entry phone systems, and secure underground parking.

The complex construction project to create the development involved cohesive teamwork between Vauxlaurens Property Holdings Limited (who own and have developed the site) architects Dunnell Robertson Partnership, structural engineers CBL Consulting and main contractors JW Rihoy & Son.

One St. Julian’s Avenue, Guernsey

The project involved the demolition of the former brewery buildings with the exception of a distinctive original Victorian building which fronts onto St Julian’s Avenue, with this building being retained and incorporated into the new development.

The site’s restrictive size, considerable level changes, and busy central location resulted in considerable logistical challenges in both the demolition and construction phases. From drilling down two storeys into local granite for underground car parking, to the 30-metre static luffing jib tower crane that was shipped over by Rihoy & Son from the UK.

One St. Julian’s Avenue, Guernsey

Mitch Sneddon of Dunnell Robertson Partnership, said:

“The development is aimed at a wide market including those people looking to downsize to a low maintenance comfortable apartment and includes a varied mixture of individual one and two bedroom apartments, and penthouses. The property is designed along the principles of Lifetime Homes as much as is possible given the unique constraints of the site, to enable owners to enjoy their homes as their circumstances change through time.

“The building is constructed on a number of different levels, in some areas consisting of a single storey, rising to four storeys, and incorporating the retained distinctive Victorian stone building, as is the original archway entrance which has also been retained as part of the new development. The design has been carefully formulated to accommodate the levels of the retained existing building, and the varying levels of access points across the site.

“We have designed the new development to respect the features of the original retained building and surroundings, using traditional materials including render, granite and brickwork, which are very much in keeping with the industrial feel of the building that previously occupied the site. However the traditional forms are expressed in a more contemporary way in the new build elements, as we move around the site.

One St. Julian’s Avenue, Guernsey

“For example we have used double glazed timber sash windows in the retained element, with aluminium sliding sash windows on the immediately adjacent elevations, with the design incorporating more contemporary casement windows and Juliet balconies, step out balconies as we move away from the retained building. The existing building has been extensively refurbished to modern standards, whilst retaining the original appearance externally through painstaking detail, such as re-roofing the existing building in a combination of standard rectangular slates and specially imported scalloped edge slates, the complete rebuilding with lead trays of the existing chimneys, and the full restoration of the distinctive finials.”

The new build is a masonry cavity wall construction with either blockwork & render, facing brickwork or granite (a combination of reclaimed granite from the site, and new French granite to match) external leaf. The walls are designed on a brickwork dimension module, resulting in only one elevation requiring cut bricks. The floors are pre-cast concrete floor planks with steel structure where required. The structural elements have been carefully designed in conjunction with the structural engineers to ensure structural stability is not compromised whilst utilising ‘robust details’ to achieve acoustic separation throughout the development.

Due to the nature of the development which is constructed on a number of different levels across a variety of geometries, there are a wide range of apartments, each having its own individual character and aspect.

One St. Julian’s Avenue, Guernsey

JW Rihoy & Son were extremely diligent, and constructed a high quality building with a very good level of finish, on a demanding site with exceptional conditions to contend with.

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Roma Publications