Anyone househunting will be familiar with endless boom-era built apartments with limited storage and scant consideration as to the long-term viability of such units.
With Ardilea Crescent, Galway-based O’Malley Construction has created a brand new template that gives homeowners light, space and storage. Meet apartment living version 2.0.
The same housebuilders completed Wyckham Point in Dundrum, Churchfields in Milltown, Sunbury Gardens in Dartry, Symphony House on Adelaide Road and the apartments at St Helens in Stillorgan and have sold 19 of the 20 three-storey houses in this development that launched mid-2016.
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Designed by architects McCrossan O’Rourke Manning, there are two styles of apartment on offer; those with dual aspect and those with single aspect, but there is very little discernible difference between them in terms of size or light as all have been designed to feature a balcony with a southerly aspect.
In total each two-bed unit has 36 sq m of living space comprising an open plan living room that is about 4.3m wide, so there is scope to install standard and outsized furniture.
Underfloor heating means furniture can be configured any way you want without having to factor in where radiators are positioned. Floor to ceiling glazing by Wrights floods the room in light and warm LED lighting casts a glow from the coffered ceiling overhead.
The kitchen, in the palest of grey, is by QK Living and comes with quartz countertops. All appliances – mainly by Neff – are supplied.
The units also have two good-sized bedrooms – the main bedroom has a fine en suite shower room.
There is storage space galore in each unit, about 8 cubic metres in total, as well as a small utility room to isolate the noise from the (included) washer drier. Some of these utilities are off the main cooking area – in others it is in the hall.
The show units have been designed by Arlene McIntyre of Ventura Design and the two-beds range in price from €495,000 for a dual-aspect two-bed unit to €560,000 for a single aspect style.
These range in size from 87 sq m to 89sq m/936sq m – 958sq m. There are two three-bed penthouse properties; one measures 115sq m/1238sq ft and is seeking €765,000, the other measures 118sq m/1270sq ft and is seeking €800,000.
Ardilea Crescent is hard to find. It is a small estate at the top of Ardilea, an established estate off Roebuck Road in Clonskeagh filled with wide tree-lined roads all named after American universities.
This plays to its advantage. Secreted away from the busy road these suburban surrounds are unusual in that there are two further large apartment developments nearby, both at construction stage.
The Grove, a scheme of houses and apartments by Durkan Estates, part of Durkan Homes Group, will launch soon, while on the other side of the tree-lined boundary of Ardilea Crescent, Knockrabo on Mount Anville Road is where Maplewood Residential is currently building 39 apartments due for launch next February.
