Paramount by The Office Space is a stunning new development borne out of a visionary collaboration between Elan Construct and global design and consulting company Woods Bagot.
Elan Construct Director, Boris Tosic owns the development, which comprises a twenty-two-office redevelopment, boardroom, meeting room and bar within heritage-listed Paramount House in Sydney’s Surry Hills.
Paramount House is a much-loved art deco building which was the Australian headquarters for Paramount Pictures in the 1940’s. The Golden Age Cinema and Paramount Coffee Project also form part of the iconic redevelopment.
Boris Tosic says he chose Paramount House for his office development because of its design and the fact that it was part of the culture of the area.
"It's a beautiful building that had been unoccupied for some time. The public loved this building and I saw it as a challenge to make the interior great again and reflect the rich design elements of the forties."
Enter Global design and architecture consultancy Woods Bagot and American Black Cherry from Britton Timbers.
Woods Bagot’s head of interior design Todd Hammond, preferred American Black Cherry for the interior because it offered a tonal quality that sat somewhere between the darker, luxurious feel of Walnut and the many blonde timbers currently on offer.
It was important not to enclose the smaller spaces and the honey-golden tones of American Black Cherry also worked well with the Queensland Maple featured in the front entrance.
American Black Cherry’s figurative grain was another attractive feature and the Woods Bagot design team decided not to apply protective UV coatings to allow the timber to darken attractively with age.
Six hundred square metres of hand-glued American Black Cherry veneers are featured alongside the solid wood components, all of which are finished with an obsessive attention to detail to making Paramount by The Office Space an iconic project.
Britton Timber’s Dominic McNeil says American Black Cherry is an inspired-choice for the fabulous project.
"For a high-end joinery project like this, American Black Cherry is perfect. It works well and has a fine, straight grain. It's available in a wide range of sizes and can be bent and used for many applications where fine craftsmanship is called for - architectural joinery, cabinets, even musical instruments. Its use in the Paramount redevelopment will be of interest to many designers and developers and could well accelerate its already growing resurgence in the marketplace."
Paramount by The Office Space exudes a luxurious, glamorous feel and that’s largely down to brilliant design choices and state-of-the-art joining techniques.
The natural materials like limestone, marble and leather combine seamlessly with the warmth of American Black Cherry to create a feeling of contemporary comfort within the context of the retained art deco elements.
It is testament to Elan Construct’s latest measurement technology and state-of-the-art CNC machinery that all the all problems associated with an older building were quickly solved and the project completed within an astonishing ten weeks.
"We chose to treat the whole project as a high-end joinery exercise with the curved office suites constructed by hand in the workshop before being transported to the site - it's essentially a giant 3D puzzle that clips into itself."
Paramount House is situated at the juncture of Commonwealth, Hunt and Brisbane Streets in Surry Hills and is absolutely worth a visit to see how brilliant design and creative vision have combined to turn an art deco masterpiece into a modern classic.
