IN GOOD COMPANY

With an enviable address and solid bones, the restoration of this historic Sydney apartment is a study in style and restraint

the apartment renovation is in The Astor, a 13-storey apartment building in Sydney. Built-in the early 1920s, The Astor is an Australian State Heritage item designed by Esplin and Mould. It was one of the first prestige apartment buildings in the city and includes a reinforced concrete frame and steel windows.

‘The brief was to update the layout of the apartment and maximise appreciation of the existing heritage features and incredible views,’ says architect Madeleine Blanchfield, whose eponymous studio headed up the project. ‘The existing apartment had a tiny, separate kitchen, old bathroom and some dubious tinkering had been done over the years.’