When we first met the team from Athena Home Loans it was clear that they weren’t a typical home loan brand. They spoke with passion about ‘Athena, the Game-Changing Goddess of Good Stuff’ and how life was too short for a long home loan.
The founders Nathan Walsh and Michael Starkley along with Chief of People and Community Liana Mawston emphasised that they wanted an inviting space that was anything but corporate.
The space comprised of three separate tenancies that had been stitched together which brought with it heritage and contemporary features including a sunken floor and a particularly unfriendly interconnecting stair. An outdoor deck for social events and collaboration was an added bonus.
There was two key challenges in delivering this awesome workplace project. The first was to deliver a project outcome that was visionary, vibrant and truly reflective of the Athena brand and its culture. The second was to work through pandemic lockdowns whilst maintaining an aggressive program and a very tight budget that was also reflective of Acuity’s ethos to spend our client’s funds like they are our own.
To deliver upon its design vision, Acuity recommended that Athena partner with the best possible design, engineering and graphics team that could bring the design vision to life. When you look at the photographs of the completed project, the outcome speaks for itself. To meet budget, we were always looking to improve value whether through furniture reuse, reviewing alternative options for procurement, or just by working harder than ever to meet Athena’s expectations. To meet program whilst enduring lockdowns and resourcing shortages, we were 100% transparent with the head contractor and subcontractor team.
