An architect has snapped up one of Auckland's architectural gems for more than $2 million.
Listing agent Ryan Teece, of Whitefox Real Estate, said the buyer had fallen in love with the striking three-bedroom home designed in 1970s by legendary Kiwi architect Claude Megson.
The property on Keretene Place, in Meadowbank, is known as the Barr House, after its original owners, Pat and John Barr.
The vendors, who bought the property from the Barrs in 2016, had been looking for a buyer who felt the same way about the house as they did.
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Teece, who is married to Hits radio host and former Breakfast TV presenter Matty McLean, was unable to disclose the exact sale price but said it had fetched above $2m after multiple offers.
He said the buyers were a "great couple" and "passionate" about the house. "They just fell in love with it," Teece said, noting that one of them was an architect.
“They are very very passionate about the architecture and love the 1970s.”
The house retains the original flavour of Claude Megson's design. Photo / Supplied
The current owners bought the post-modern house in 2016 for just under $2m and undertook extensive refurbishment, restoring original colours and finishes. Photo / Supplied
Teece said that even buyers who were unfamiliar with Megson’s reputation in New Zealand architecture could see that the house was different.
“Some people just saw it as a family house, thinking they would spend a lot to ‘modernise’ it,” Teece told OneRoof.
“But the more emotional buyers saw the higher value in its architecture, they saw it as a piece of art.”
This was the vendor's second go at selling property, but Teece said that those who came to inspect it this time around were "genuinely looking to buy".
“I think in the first campaign, a lot of people were there to see the house as architecture fans - students, architects, people who knew of the house," he said.
“This time, they were genuine buyers, so we could really concentrate on them as they came through the door."
Teece (right) with husband Matty McLean. Photo / Supplied
“We had multiple offers, so that was great. It shows a lot of confidence.”
Teece said that the vendors were delighted that the buyers planned to keep the house as it was. “It’s just what we all hoped."
Teece told OneRoof that the house was an emotional one. “I think it’s the kind of home that you need to spend a bit of time in to really appreciate why it was designed the way it was. The use of light, space and elevation to create different spaces is really quite special.”
In an interview with the New Zealand Herald in 2016, the original owners, then in their 90s, said they engaged Megson to build them a home after buying a plot of land in Meadowbank for £5600.
The Barrs said they were the ideal customers, leaving Megson to get on with the work. Their only specification was no timber or brick, which Megson duly ignored: the entire interior is lined with wide Western red cedar boards, the ceilings battened with fine mate and the exterior is a mixture of cedar and brick.
Although much of the fittings and appliances are new, the interiors are very much 1970s in look and feel. Photo / Supplied
The yellow lacquer accents and purple doors are original Megson colours, as are the murals on the louvres that separate the entrance from the living room. Megson also picked out the Barrs’ furniture and designed every cupboard, closet and dresser. The Barrs said they even needed Megson’s approval to update the dining room curtains.
The vendors told OneRoof last year that their painstaking restoration included lifting and re-laying original tiles and repainting the cupboard doors in the original bright colours. There are new appliances in the kitchen, new central heating and hot water, and the basement floor rumpus room was lined and carpeted to make a bedroom.
Outside, the couple replaced the deck, added outbuildings and landscaping and re-laid the courtyard brickwork. New paintwork returned the exterior louvres to their original bright yellow and doors throughout the house have been revived.
“All the renovations have been done to refresh and replace rather than modernise,” the vendor told OneRoof. “Nothing has been done to the house to undermine the original architecture.”
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