It was a big grey and cream complex Jenny Edwards had passed by hundreds of times on her way into the city centre.
But when the time came for her and her partner, David Dufty, to downsize, she began looking more closely.
Edwards knows her design, and she knew this apartment, on the first floor of the vast Metropolitan complex on Edinburgh Avenue, was a good one.
As a scientist, she helps people design comfortable and climate-resilient housing through her home design and retrofitting company, Light House ArchiScience.
For a time, she lived in one of these beautiful little homes herself, in the new suburb of Wright in the Molonglo Valley. But this 2000s-era apartment called to her.
"I had looked at lots of others, and I wasn't very taken with a lot of the newer ones," she says.
"This one is well designed, I think. We get cross ventilation, we get good light, it's well laid out. And just so, so close to everything."
Jenny and David have three adult children between, all of whom had flown the coop. And while Jenny loved the garden she had created on her tiny, 405-square-metre block, along with the "smaller, smarter, sustainable new build" she had created for the family, they needed to look elsewhere.
This two-bedroom apartment, while relatively drab inside - all cream, white and beige, with a perfunctory kind of kitchen - was right at mid-tree level, with north-facing bedroom windows looking over a central courtyard.
Edwards, like so many other Canberrans, has well and truly discovered the delights of chic city living which, in Canberra at least, means an apartment. If you're lucky, a well-built 2000s-era one surrounded by established trees.
It used to be a novel thing in Canberra, to live close to the city centre. There were lots of apartments, but they tended to be small, basic, and designed for people passing through. Young public servants starting their careers, for example, or politicians here for sitting weeks.
But the 2000s saw the first batch of well-made apartments meant for living.
Real estate agent Peta Swarbrick began her career in Canberra in the mid-2000s, and says one of her first jobs was selling off all the leftover units - the ones that hadn't sold off the plan - in the Metropolitan.
"The 2000s was when residential apartments really took off in Canberra as viable first homes," she says.
"They were downsizer homes, they weren't for investors or students or people passing through."
They were also considered, when the build began around 2005, out of the way - on the western edge of Civic, before Nishi and the New Acton precinct took shape.
The Space buildings, on Northbourne Avenue, which predate the Metropolitan by a few years, were also seen as slightly beyond the reach of the city - a full two blocks from Civic.
"You kind of can't tell now, but Space was considered practically in Belconnen," she says.
And that's not to mention other early outliers - the Glebe apartments, also in Civic, several around Turner, the Landmark apartments in Barton, and the very first complexes taking shape on the Kingston Foreshore, as well as the controversial Sky Plaza in Woden - a mixed-use building that has its fair share of critics.
Back in Civic, the two Space buildings are, even today, considered the premium versions of the genre - well-designed, well-appointed and spacious apartments that have stood the test of time.
ACT government architect Catherine Townsend, whose firm Townsend & Associates designed the buildings in the early 2000s, says the attitude towards developing and building apartments has changed since then.
"What differentiates Space from really everything else is an attitude from the developer and the architect," she says.
"They both approach the problem from a first principles point of view - how do you make gracious living? It's called Space because it is about the space. It's not a minimum ceiling height, they're not uselessly large places, they're really well designed, highly functional, and that brings an enjoyment to the really simple acts of living, being able to sit in the sun, have a breeze, a shaded balcony.
"When I look at a lot of apartments now, they're a box for living in, but they're the equivalent of microwave ovens - giant glass, facing west.
"Across the spectrum of developers, a relatively small group are concerned with legacy."
Edwards certainly has no regrets, having given up her high-performing creation in Wright. Upon moving in three years ago, she and Dufty swiftly renovated the kitchen and installed joinery and storage, all in a distinctive colour scheme that plays off the natural light and outside greenery. And there are also plenty of apartments, cafes and restaurants in this pocket of Civic that was once overlooked.
"In the winter, in the afternoons, we actually get light reflected off the New Acton apartments," she says.
"It's quite amazing - I love the building's physics."
