One of Auckland's top real estate agents has bought the home of My Food Bag co-founder Theresa Gattung.
Ollie Wall, of Wall Real Estate, secured the architecturally stunning three-bedroom house at 3 Livingstone Street, in Westmere, after it passed in at auction last week.
The house was designed by award-winning architect Andrew Patterson, and had been Gattung's home for five years before she decided to shift to a few blocks away – to a house with a bigger swimming pool.
Wall, who with his father, Graham, and brother, Andrew, has sold some of New Zealand's most expensive and stunning homes, told OneRoof: "I'm lucky enough, in my job, to have seen up close some of the best designed homes New Zealand has to offer. I love Kiwi architecture and Andrew Patterson is one of the best in the field."
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Wall said that he knew of the house long before it was put up for sale and was excited to be its new owner. "It's like a work of art but one I get to see and live in every day."
The house was marketed for sale by Bayleys agent Edward Pack, who said of the sale: "It was a competitive auction, and it was a property that attracted buyers from far and wide. It's very hard to find new homes of architectural merit in the area."
Gattung, a self-described “obsessive swimmer”, told OneRoof last month that it is only the lure of a house with its own full-length lap pool that had drawn her away from 3 Livingstone Street.
“I realised during lock down when I couldn’t swim, that I just have to. It was terrible,” she said, adding that a friend spotted the new pool for her.
Like Wall, Gattung is passionate about the architecture of Andrew Patterson and she told OneRoof that she had commissioned him to design her a new home at Waihi Beach, replacing her old bach of 20 years.
“I absolutely love Andrew. I’m a tall person, he’s a tall person, the owner he built this for was tall, so there’s a really good sense of scale, it feels expansive but it fits into the landscape," she said last month.
My Food Bag co-founder Theresa Gattung in the art-filled home designed by architect Andrew Patterson. Photo / Sara Orme
Ollie Wall, left, with his brother Andrew and father Graham. Photo / Ted Baghurst
Gattung, the first woman CEO of Telecom, is best known now as the co-founder, with Cecelia Robinson and Nadia Lim, of My Food Bag.
Gattung told OneRoof that she would miss her Livingstone Street kitchen, saying the stainless-steel kitchen island makes the host feel part of the action.
Patterson's design opens the house to the private garden and pool with sliding walls of glass. Photo / Supplied
She said the house has plenty of walls for her art, storage for books (she chaired the New Zealand Advisory Group for the Frankfurt Book Fair) and closets galore in the master bedroom for her countless shoes (“I do actually wear them") and New Zealand designer-heavy wardrobe (other gigs included promoting New Zealand wools and Trelise Cooper fashions internationally). She added air-conditioning for summer cooling.
She described the upper story principal bedroom balcony wrapped in timber battens, as her “outdoor room” with views above the tree tops to Cox’s Bay and Herne Bay. Downstairs walls of glass slide away for completely open summer living.
The open plan living room includes plenty of well-conceived storage and walls for Gattung's art collection. Photo / Supplied
“It is at its most magnificent in the summer, we had a huge gathering for my nephew’s 30th and it really was indoor-outdoor.”
My Food Bag, in which Gattung has an almost 11 percent stake, is 70 percent owned by private company investor Waterman Fund. Earlier this month it announced it has appointed PWC to investigate options" for a potential sale of the business and share market debut.
A favourite spot in the house is the timber-wrapped outdoor room off the master bedroom which has views across the trees to Cox's Bay. Photo / Supplied
