The site is located in the centre of Paddington’s  shopping area and  was originally occupied by derelict industrial buildings belonging to Sydney Water. At the time of construction it was the first “new – build” retail premises to be constructed in the Oxford Street shopping strip in living memory. The building occupies a pie shaped allotment with a forty metre frontage to Oxford Street .

The project was designed around two major tenancies, Country Road and Laura Ashley’s @home designer homeware store. It was arranged over two stories, the street façade resolving the irregular street boundaries into a gentle arc intended to sequentially display shopfront windows to passing pedestrians and motorists.

Large shopfront windows and contemporary surface finishes were reconciled with the Victorian high street architecture by the reinterpretation of the vertically proportioned pilaster bays, street awning and coursing lines. Contrasting bright and dull stainless steel and aluminium detailing was used to reinforce the connection with the highly detailed façade treatment of the Victorian urban fabric.