HLA Group wins approval for Glasswing apartment tower in Brisbane's inner west
Melbourne-based developer HLA Group has cleared one of the biggest hurdles in its push into the Brisbane apartment market, securing approval for its butterfly-inspired Glasswing development in Taringa.
Brisbane City Council has approved the 19-storey mixed-use tower at 10 Morrow Street, around nine months after HLA lodged plans for what will become one of the more architecturally distinctive additions to Brisbane's inner-western apartment market.
Apartments.com.au first revealed the plans in December last year, when HLA emerged as the latest Melbourne developer looking north to South East Queensland with a project combining permanent apartments, short-term accommodation and hospitality and commercial uses immediately alongside Taringa Station.
At the time, the development was pitched as something of an urban oasis, with Ellivo Architects taking the unusual step of drawing the building's architecture from the Glasswing butterfly.
The approval now gives HLA the green light for 116 market apartments across a mix of one, two, three and four-bedroom configurations, alongside 116 short-term accommodation units.
The build-to-sell mix comprises 31 one-bedroom apartments, 67 two-bedroom apartments, 17 three-bedroom apartments and a single four-bedroom residence.
The project will rise from a 3,131 sqm site at 10 Morrow Street, positioned at the entrance to Taringa Village and adjoining Taringa Station, one of the attributes HLA and its planning team identified as central to the site's redevelopment potential.
There will also be 195 car spaces, while a significant emphasis has been placed on the amenity offering across both the podium and rooftop.
Ellivo's design is where Glasswing separates itself from much of the apartment pipeline emerging across Brisbane.
Rather than designing a conventional singular tower form, Ellivo divided the floorplate into four distinct quadrants inspired by the segmented geometry of a butterfly's wings. Slender vertical elements running up the façade reference the veins of the Glasswing butterfly, while deep recesses, cascading landscaping and softened edges break down the building's scale.
The design also responds to Brisbane's subtropical climate, with passive ventilation, solar shading and extensive greenery incorporated throughout the tower.
When Apartments.com.au first covered the application, planning consultant Human Habitats said the development sought to capitalise on the site's position at the entrance to Taringa Village and immediately alongside the railway station, while delivering new housing and improving activation around the precinct.
The approval represents another step in HLA's expansion beyond its Melbourne base.
The privately owned development group, led by Managing Director Zoran Pavlovic, and whose name stands for Houses, Land and Apartments, has built its business across residential development before broadening into larger mixed-use and accommodation projects. Its portfolio now stretches from boutique luxury residential developments to major mixed-use precincts and hotel projects.
In Melbourne, HLA is currently delivering Adamson No.5 in Brighton, a boutique collection of luxury residences near Church Street, while its broader portfolio includes a two-residence project overlooking the Yarra River on Alexandra Avenue in South Yarra.
At the other end of the scale is Union Quarter in Spotswood, a major mixed-use project completed in 2024 incorporating more than 330 residences alongside a full-line Woolworths and Dan Murphy's. HLA's portfolio also includes an approved 212-room Courtyard by Marriott hotel development in Mulgrave.
That experience across both residential and hotel development is particularly relevant to Glasswing, given the Taringa project combines 116 permanent apartments with an equal number of short-term accommodation units.
HLA is also looking beyond Taringa in Queensland. Its portfolio identifies a further hotel and residential tower planned for Mary Street in the Brisbane CBD, suggesting Glasswing will form part of a broader push into the Queensland capital rather than a one-off interstate project.
Taringa has increasingly emerged as a natural extension of Brisbane's inner-west apartment market, sitting immediately east of Indooroopilly and around seven kilometres from the CBD.
The suburb benefits from its own train station, proximity to Indooroopilly Shopping Centre and access to the University of Queensland at St Lucia, while established retail, education and transport infrastructure has continued to support new apartment development through the inner-west corridor.
Joel Robinson
Joel Robinson is the Editor in Chief at Apartments.com.au, where he leads the editorial team and oversees the country’s most comprehensive news coverage dedicated to the off the plan property market. With more than a decade of experience in residential real estate journalism, Joel brings deep insight into Australia’s evolving development landscape.
He holds a degree in Business Management with a major in Journalism from Leeds Beckett University in the UK, and has developed a particular expertise in off the plan apartment space. Joel’s editorial lens spans the full lifecycle of a project, from site acquisition and planning approvals through to new launches, construction completions, and final sell-out, delivering trusted, buyer-focused content that supports informed decision-making across the property journey
