Home / Architect Prahran
Prahran packs three kinds of building into one postcode: Victorian terrace pockets in the quieter streets off Greville and Grattan, a generous layer of interwar art-deco walk-up flats, and the Chapel Street spine where heritage shopfronts carry new uses above and behind them. Each type renovates differently, and knowing which rules and which tricks apply to yours is most of the value an architect brings here.
ALL THREE, COVERED
BY Projects Architecture works across all three. Barbara Yerondais FRAIA, registered architect, leads a practice of 35+ years and 400+ projects across Victoria, two of the freshest delivered in this council in 2025: an Edwardian renovation within a Heritage Overlay and a mid-century villa reworking, both in Malvern.
PROJECT MIX
The staple: light and storage found inside tight Victorian footprints.
The interwar walk-ups reward careful reworking: good bones, awkward kitchens, and body-corporate realities we know how to navigate.
Along the Chapel Street grain, where hospitality and living quarters share old walls.
Where the overlay applies, covered next.
DESIGN & APPROVAL
The ordinary layers apply here as everywhere, neighbourhood character, setbacks, parking and, for the flats, body-corporate consent, and they get resolved early.
On the heritage side, two Stonnington specifics work in your favour: the council runs a pre-application advice pathway, and it operates a faster ten-day assessment stream for eligible heritage applications, which suits Prahran's typical project scale well.
Your grading (Significant, Contributory or Non-contributory) sets the envelope for external change, and internal alterations are generally permit-free unless your overlay schedule specifies otherwise.
We confirm your exact position before design begins and program to the real timeline.
Get the answer for your building.
BOOK A FEASIBILITY SESSIONOUTCOMES
A terrace that finally breathes. A flat whose 1930s character survives its 2020s kitchen. A shopfront that earns its keep upstairs and down. Advice priced on a fixed fee agreed at the start, from a practice with delivered work one suburb away.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Yes, and we enjoy it: the interwar walk-ups have strong bones and period detail worth keeping, and the craft is modernising kitchens, bathrooms and services without flattening the character. Body-corporate and structural questions get answered at feasibility.
Faster than most owners expect: the council operates a ten-day assessment stream for eligible heritage applications, and internal alterations generally need no planning permit unless your overlay schedule specifies otherwise. We confirm which pathway fits your project first.
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 Prahran price guides; scope and site drive the real number, and the feasibility session gives you one for your project.
Yes: two Malvern projects delivered in 2025 in this same council, one an Edwardian renovation inside a Heritage Overlay. Same planning system, same expectations, one suburb over.
LOCAL KNOWLEDGE
Permit triggers, gradings and the Heritage Design Guidelines.
The council's formal pathway before lodgement.
Check whether a property is heritage listed.
START THE CONVERSATION
A feasibility session with Barbara reads your building, its grading and its possibilities together, and you keep the drawn concept. No obligation.
Schedule a Feasibility SessionEvery project begins with a deep inquiry into site, heritage, and vision. Let’s discuss the strategic potential of your next work.
A PRELIMINARY CONSULTATION TO EVALUATE HERITAGE CONSTRAINTS, SITE POTENTIAL, AND PROJECT FEASIBILITY.
Suite 4, 86 Wellington St Collingwood
VIC 3066
projects@byarchitecture.com.au
03 9663 8331
© 2026 BY Projects Architecture