As the crane hoisted the 220 kilo pane of glass depicting Hermes’ left cheek into place, passers-by in busy Dundas Place – the main strip of Melbourne’s affluent Albert Park suburb, looked up nervously entranced, before quickening their pace.
And they weren’t the only ones whose pulses were racing that little bit faster. Emanuel Giorgio, Director of Melbourne’s Redesign Group – the developer behind the Hermes Apartment complex – was witnessing the penultimate chapter in an epic story.
The lifting-in of the facade – made up of a translucent image of the Greek messenger God fused in between nine giant panes of glass – almost brings to an end a project that has had its trials and tribulations.
Since the project began more than four years ago, Giorgio’s Hermes development has seen intense local debate, and at the 11th hour, the Paris retail fashion giant of the same name, weighing-in with threats to derail the project.
Next weekend however, the last of the nine Hermes apartments goes under the hammer, and Melbourne-born Giorgio, whose family hails from Samos, has kept the best to last.
The Hermes Penthouse apartment is an oasis of light, space and technical innovation in the heart of one of Melbourne’s most sought-after suburbs.
With a Poggenpohi kitchen, Gaggenau appliances imported from Germany, spacious study and lounge, and three bedrooms, and a balcony with stunning panoramic views of the city, Hermes’ top floor is rightly promoted as “entertainer’s haven”.
Lavished with exquisite Carrara marble, Mafi oak floors and the latest technology floor-to-ceiling windows, a Greek Glendi could be going-on downstairs and you wouldn’t notice.
Stylish and sophisticated – it’s a space for a serious party – perhaps a celebration to mark parting with the more than $2.5m needed to own this highly desirable residence.
Its creator, who was born in Footscray, started the Redesign Group in 1986. Beginning in construction, in the mid ’90s Emanuel Georgio began pushing the envelope with ever larger projects, moving into property development and concentrating on the Metro Melbourne area.
With the business growing from strength to strength, and family and work connections in Germany, Georgio spends much of his time in Bonn. “I’m always working,” he says, wiping the perspiration from his brow as he peers up at his most ambitious project in the Victorian capital to date.
Giorgo worked with fellow hellene and Melbourne architect George Metaxas to realise the apartments, though the Hermes concept is down to Emanuel’s wife Stella, whose idea it was to link the old Albert Park Post Office – above which the new building sits – to the messenger of the Gods in Greek mythology.
Artist collaborator Kate Spencer ran with the idea, finding an image of one of the first ever Greek postage stamps produced in 1861 which bears the profile of the winged messenger. Between the 1860s and 1901 many editions of the ‘Hermes’ stamp were produced. The one used for the glass facade is based on the design for the pende lepta edition.
Metaxas told Neos Kosmos that Hermes had been a challenging project, not least because of limitations imposed by the council on height and heritage considerations.
“They built a standard government issue post office in the 1930s and it had always been a bit of a hole in the street with a 3-storey art deco hotel on one side, and a 2-storey Victorian terrace on the other. The challenge was how to fill the hole.
“We came up with the idea of a folding abstract plane above the existing facade.”
The project had its critics in the early days. Consultations with the Albert Park community produced heated debate over the development, with many local people unhappy that the post office would not be retained for its original purpose.
After extensive discussions with the local council over almost four years, a trip to VCAT, and with the support of a heritage architect, finally the design met planning approval.
Though the building was purchased in late 2007, construction began in 2011. The nine 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments were completed in less than twelve months.
But as the final exquisite finishes were being put in place, one last potential spanner in the works presented itself, ironically in the form of a hand-delivered message to Georgio post-marked ‘Paris’.
“Hermes the fashion brand sent me an extremely nasty letter,” says Emanuel. “It said if we didn’t stop using the Hermes brand within 48 hours then we’d be in all sorts of trouble.
“It was worrying. We had to make them understand that we had nothing to do with fashion.
“Our line was that if they wanted to pursue the matter legally, they wouldn’t be suing my company, they’d be suing Greek mythology.”
With eight apartments sold with an entry level price of $700,000, upmarket food retailer Gumtree won the much sought-after lease for the ground-floor premises.
The high-end food store says Georgio is the pefect fit. “We were approached by over 20 cafes when we put it out for lease, but we didn’t want the cooking facilities, the odours coming through, we wanted a high-end development.”
And a high-end development is certainly what Hermes delivers.
Emanuel Georgio and his team have transformed the Albert Park landscape. In Hermes – the god of transitions and boundaries who moved as an emissary between the worlds of the mortal and divine – there couldn’t be a richer symbol for a groundbreaking example of urban re-development.
For those after the perfect Albert Park luxury hideaway – and who don’t expect much change from $3m – the Hermes Penthouse apartment 301/87-89 Dundas Place goes up for auction at midday on Saturday February 23.