Architects East Melbourne

Inner-city buildings come in two kinds, and so do their renovations. If you hold one of East Melbourne's terraces, among the earliest and most comprehensively protected streetscapes in the city, the question is how far a renovation can go inside serious heritage controls. If you hold an apartment in the CBD or its fringe, the question is whether any serious architect will treat it as real architecture. Our answer to the second is the shorter one: three apartment projects delivered in this council since 2024, two on Dudley Street in West Melbourne and one on La Trobe Street in the CBD itself.

TERRACE TO TOWER

BY Projects Architecture works both sides of that line. Registered architect Barbara Yerondais FRAIA leads the practice; its record spans 35+ years and 400+ projects across Victoria, terrace to tower.

35+

YEARS

400+

PROJECTS

59+

HERITAGE APPROVALS

TWO PATHS

Terrace or apartment:
how the projects differ

The terrace path

The terrace path runs through the City of Melbourne's heritage machinery: gradings, precinct controls, and design expectations the council publishes openly. The wins come from restraint on the street side and transformation behind it, and from drawings prepared for a demanding assessment.

The apartment path

The apartment path runs through structure, services and strata: what the slab, the risers and the owners corporation will allow. Our recent work is exactly this: a full interior retrofit with thermal upgrade on Dudley Street, West Melbourne in 2024, a second apartment renovation in the same street in 2025, and a La Trobe Street apartment renovation the same year. City apartments are not lesser architecture to this practice; they are a discipline we keep choosing.

DESIGN & APPROVAL

The council's own guides,
used properly

For terraces

The City of Melbourne publishes more owner guidance than most councils: a Heritage Owner's Guide for properties in the Heritage Overlay, a Heritage Design Guide for how change should look, an online heritage map, and a do-I-need-a-permit tool.

For apartments

The approvals that matter usually sit outside the planning scheme altogether: owners-corporation consent for anything touching common property or services, structural sign-off for anything touching the slab, and building permits for the works themselves; we scope all three at feasibility.

How we use them

We use them the way they were meant to be used, as the starting frame for a design the assessment will recognise, and we read your building's exact controls before anything is drawn. Statutory clocks (60 statutory days, with pauses) get programmed truthfully.

Terrace or apartment, bring the floor plan.

See what your building honestly allows.

BOOK A FEASIBILITY SESSION

THE PATCH

The patch,
plainly

East Melbourne is garden-square Melbourne: Victorian terraces facing Fitzroy Gardens and the quiet grid behind them, a suburb that was grand before most of the city existed. The CBD and its fringe are its vertical counterpart, warehouse conversions, interwar buildings and modern towers, where the practice's interior and building-science strengths do their best work. One council governs both, which is convenient, because we already work in it.

OUTCOMES

What owners here
end up with

A terrace whose renovation honours the street and transforms the living. An apartment that stops apologising for being an apartment: light, storage, acoustics and thermal comfort engineered, not endured. And the feasibility answer first, on a fixed fee agreed at the start.

COMMON QUESTIONS

East Melbourne questions,
answered honestly

Do you renovate CBD and city-fringe apartments?

Yes, by preference, not exception: two apartment renovations on Dudley Street, West Melbourne (2024 and 2025) and one on La Trobe Street in the CBD (2025), including full interior retrofits with thermal upgrades. Strata, structure and services questions get answered at feasibility.

How strict are East Melbourne's heritage controls?

Some of the city's most comprehensive, and navigable: the council publishes its expectations in the Heritage Owner's Guide and Heritage Design Guide, and drawings that speak their language from day one tend to have short conversations with the assessor. We read your building's exact grading first.

What does an architect-designed renovation or extension cost?

Across BY Projects' delivered work, renovation budgets have ranged from approximately $250,000–$570,000, and substantial extensions have started around $1 million. These are portfolio examples rather than East Melbourne price guides; scope and site drive the real number, and the feasibility session gives you one for your project.

Can an owners corporation stop my apartment renovation?

It can shape it: common property, services and structure sit under strata rules. We establish what consent your scope needs during feasibility, so the design that proceeds is one that can actually be built.

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

Useful City of Melbourne
resources

Heritage Owner's Guide

The council's guide for Heritage Overlay properties.

Heritage Design Guide

How the council expects change to look.

Do I need a permit?

The council's online permit-check tool.

Victorian Heritage Database

Check whether a property is heritage listed.

START THE CONVERSATION

The studio is
ten minutes away

A full one-hour feasibility session with Barbara at the Collingwood studio, a short walk from East Melbourne: your building, its controls and its capacity, drawn and weighed. Yours to keep, no obligation.

Schedule a Feasibility Session

Start the Conversation

Every project begins with a deep inquiry into site, heritage, and vision. Let’s discuss the strategic potential of your next work.

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A PRELIMINARY CONSULTATION TO EVALUATE HERITAGE CONSTRAINTS, SITE POTENTIAL, AND PROJECT FEASIBILITY.