Whangārei Harbour has been important since our earliest days, serving as a touchdown level for migratory waka and a centre for commerce throughout pre-colonial instances. Because the missionaries and settlers moved south from the Bay of Islands, a number of households took up residence from the 1830s however fled in 1845 when battle broke out within the north; many didn’t return. The city later developed as a port for pure assets extracted from the hinterland – significantly after coal was discovered close by – the port situated in what’s now the City Basin.
The financial significance of coastal delivery routes light when rail linked town to the nation within the Twenties. Building of the Marsden Level Oil Refinery boosted the area within the Sixties and Northport within the 2000s, although Northland’s financial system misplaced vigour relative to different areas. Town has retained, although, an fascinating assortment of buildings. Maybe an upside of its comparatively low density has been a sample of letting outdated buildings tackle new makes use of. The place different cities have scrapped and changed facilities, Whangārei’s outdated submit workplace, council places of work and libraries survive.
Because the listings present, whereas a lot has been constructed by out-of- towners, town has a lineage of adventurous and achieved locals. These now embody established companies similar to HB Structure, in addition to practices adopting different fashions – community-based facilitators ĀKAU and kaupapa Māori specialists Matakohe Structure + Urbanism.
Whangārei boasts a few our most fascinating current public buildings. The Hundertwasser Artwork Centre celebrates Friedenreich Hundertwasser’s artwork and his exuberant strategy to creating buildings. It repudiates the cool sophistication of most modern structure. The place a lot of what we do is fragile – the best way a constructing is occupied can diminish or overwhelm design intentions – this constructing is muscular. It’s, although, not with out contradictions – whereas not precisely bling-ed out, it’s wildly bespoke; its $33m finances was very beneficiant and its obvious looseness has needed to be rigorously contrived. The Hihiaua Cultural Centre is a neighborhood house for waka restoration and different Māori crafts. An unassuming construction using humble supplies, its key strikes are easy – notably, a spacious porch animated by sliding screens and doorways. Within the face of a lot neighborhood life and volunteerism being privatised and professionalised, it’s an exemplar of a neighborhood with restricted assets benefiting from an architect’s ability. Once more, the story is just not easy – the Centre is meant as the primary stage of a sprawling $20m scheme.
So, whereas Whangārei connects deeply into our historical past, it additionally presents – whether or not alternate options to our ordinary modes or the straightforward re-use of outdated buildings – some key paths ahead.
THE ITINERARY
01. 1903 – Kensington Park Grandstand
45 Park Avenue, Kensington
Edward Bartley
One of the prolific architects of his time, Bartley is finest recognized for the Princes Avenue Synagogue and the Blind Institute constructing, each in Auckland. He was very energetic in Whangārei, designing church buildings and business buildings, the Municipal Chambers, and a number of other buildings on the hospital, little of which survives. This grandstand, in-built Kensington Park to serve the Agricultural and Pastoral Society and the native racing membership, is without doubt one of the few in New Zealand with a barrel roof. It has been relocated and now serves the principle hockey pitch at Northland Hockey Affiliation on the northern fringe of Kensington Park.
02. 1912 – Whangārei Municipal Chambers
71 Financial institution Avenue
Hugh Grierson
Edward Bartley had constructed municipal chambers simply after the flip of the century. The present constructing was designed by Hugh Grierson who would later go into apply with Kenneth Aimer and Keith Draffin and produce the Auckland Conflict Memorial Museum. Demonstrating how small and intertwined the occupation was at the moment, Draffin had skilled in Bartley’s workplace. Standing in a line-up of civic and monetary establishments, the Municipal Chambers initially included a public studying room and library on the bottom ground, with borough and county places of work above. The constructing was severely broken by fireplace in 2019 – it’s nonetheless scaffolded and repairs are as a result of begin this 12 months.
03. 1925 – Whangārei Railway Station
Railway Highway
NZ Railways Architectural Division
beneath Sir George Troup
A harbour metropolis, Whangārei was fashioned round delivery. The station arrived comparatively late: a part of the burst of railroad constructing within the first a part of the twentieth century. Its completion marked the linking of Northland into the nationwide community. The design is a variation on the sample typical of regional stations – a timber station constructing with steel-framed platform roof – however it was one of many final produced beneath the route of Troup, who retired from the railway in 1925 and was later elected mayor of Wellington. The Northland line not serves passengers and the station is now residence to native social golf equipment.
04. 1926 – Former Public Belief Workplace
69 Financial institution Avenue
Stanley W. Fearn
British-born, Wellington-based Fearn was the winner (with Austin Fast) of the NZIA’s first-ever Gold Medal in 1927 – within the days when the judging was carried out by the RIBA in Britain – for the William Sales space Memorial Coaching Faculty in Wellington. Fearn designed Public Belief Workplaces in a number of provincial centres, together with Hawera, Hastings and Tauranga, right here producing a virtually symmetrical composition in a Stripped Classical type. The Public Belief has now moved on however the constructing continues to be in comparatively unique situation – a go to to the bar on the bottom ground offers a style of the grand public areas.
05. 1936 – Whangārei Central Library
7 Rust Avenue
Horace Massey and Alfred Morgan
Massey was one in all New Zealand’s most influential architects between the wars, successful 4 NZIA Gold Medals between 1933 and 1940. Massey and Morgan had practised collectively in Auckland within the Twenties, and continued to collaborate when Morgan was later primarily based in Whangarei. This constructing, a crisp however pretty unassuming neo- Georgian composition in brick and pale stone, earned them each an NZIA Gold Medal. The constructing was prolonged in 1964 by native architect Charles Corne and, once more, within the Nineteen Eighties by Peter McNaught, one other native. It was later changed by a brand new constructing at its rear. See Dwelling & Constructing, Feb 1939.
06. 1962 – Chapel of St Luke, Whangārei Base Hospital
Hospital Highway, Maunu
Haughey, Fox and Companions
Once more, Edward Bartley had designed (professional bono) Whangārei’s first correct hospital in 1901. Within the Nineteen Fifties, with the native inhabitants rising, Haughey, Fox and Companions commenced work on a contemporary ‘base hospital’, with this crisp chapel tucked in towards the bottom of a ward tower. It has an entry from the road however a direct connection to the wards. Kerry Francis says, “The constructing pursues later modernism’s fascination with the play of sunshine on usually closely textured surfaces. It’s constructed primarily with stretcher bond brick, which is plastered externally, and uncovered internally, between plastered concrete frames, making certain a mild heat ambiance.”
07. 1963 – Christ Church
2 Kamo Highway, Regent
Kingston, Reynolds, Thom, and Allardice
The Anglicans have had a presence in Whangārei because the time of the early settlers, who held common companies of their properties. The primary church constructed on this website was devoted by Bishop George Selwyn in 1860. The present constructing was produced by modernist maestro Ian Reynolds at KRTA, on the time New Zealand’s solely multidisciplinary consulting agency. Its architectural output was largely business and college work however the apply additionally designed a reasonably eclectic sequence of church buildings, with this maybe essentially the most refined. The heft of its strengthened concrete columns is offset by elegantly tapered geometry and delicate timber in-fills.
08. 1964 – Fletcher Home
25 Rathbone Avenue
Franz Iseke
Iseke is one in all our lesser-known émigré architects. German however born within the Far East, he studied at Harvard and met his Kiwi spouse in Australia earlier than arriving in New Zealand in 1950. He labored at progressive business agency Thorpe, Cutter, Pickmere and Douglas earlier than beginning his personal apply. His printed work is stripped-back, Case Research-style homes however he produced business buildings of varied sizes. Occupying an entire metropolis block and overlooking a park, this mission evokes Basel greater than it does provincial Aotearoa. Constructed for the Fletcher Belief and Funding Firm, its floor ground is retailers with three flooring of leasehold places of work above.
09. 1967 – Former Submit Workplace
16 Rathbone Avenue
Authorities Architect’s Avenue
Sheppard served as Authorities Architect throughout a time of giant development (1959–1971) and a number of other regional submit places of work had been designed throughout his tenure, together with the frilly, round landmark in Putāruru (1970) and a svelte international-style construction on pilotis in Hawera (1967). The Whangārei construction, designed by Regional Architect J. H. Barker for the Authorities Architect’s Workplace, is much less demonstrative – a four-square however elegant composition in pre-cast concrete, lightened by bands of home windows and delicate sunshades. With the evolution of postal companies, all these buildings have modified use, and this mission was not too long ago refitted because the regional Māori Land Courtroom.
10. 1971 – State Advances Company (SAC) Constructing
3-5 Hunt Avenue
Beatson, Rix-Trott, Carter and Co
The Beatson et al. partnership, which initially included Horace Massey (see itemizing 5), produced within the postwar interval progressive buildings throughout an enormous vary of sorts – business, industrial, college, church buildings, effective homes and so forth. Following Massey’s lead, the agency was energetic in Whangārei, together with making ready a proposal for a civic centre in 1966. Within the interval earlier than banks supplied mortgages, State Advances was a key supply of residence loans to low and moderate-income earners. Coverage adjustments quickly elevated mortgage volumes within the Sixties however the SAC was disestablished within the mid-Nineteen Seventies, not lengthy after this constructing was accomplished.
11. 1982– Discussion board North
7 Rust Avenue
Smith, Grant, and Associates
The Whangārei Civic, Cultural, Convention & Arts Centre comprises “Metropolis Council places of work and Council Chambers, exhibition corridor, areas for the humanities and crafts, theatre, restaurant and bar, info centre and administration places of work for the centre”. Organised round an inner road, the inside is a symphony within the humbler parts of early-Nineteen Eighties’ design – concrete block, timber linings, stained glass, uncovered timber trusses and roof lights. The council places of work will quickly transfer to the brand new Civic Centre close by, and there’s a scheme by Shand Shelton to insert a large new theatre into the footprint of the outdated places of work. See Dwelling & Constructing 4, 1982.
12. 2005– Whangārei Central Library
5 Rust Avenue
Jasmax
One among a sequence of libraries Jasmax produced within the mid-2000s, that is essentially the most urbane: positioned between a cultural precinct and a park. Guests go behind the outdated library to find an enormous entrance cover. This cover roof extends again into the constructing to outline an open, top-lit, two-storey collections zone. Ancillary amenities, similar to particular collections, assembly rooms, a youngsters’s space and a café, are tucked into extra enclosed areas down either side. This easy organisation creates a way of scale and readability the place modern libraries have tended in direction of a home sensibility. See Structure NZ Sept/Oct 2006.
13. 2014– Kotuitui Whitinga Footbridge
City Basin
HB Structure
Native agency Harris Butt Structure is finest recognized for its sequence of cultural amenities at Waitangi, and for the dramatic Knoll Ridge Café (2012) on Whakapapa Ski Subject. This opening bridge, situated behind the Hihiaua Tradition Centre, spans the Waiarohia Stream to create a riverfront walkway that loops from the City Basin Marina and again alongside the Hatea River. Harris Butt followers must also lookup its Quarry Café (2018), at 21 Selwyn Avenue, and Te Kakano (The Seed), a Hundertwasser-ish folly, Quayside, in-built 2016 to check the design and development strategies for the Artwork Centre later constructed subsequent to it.
14. 2019– Hihiaua Cultural Centre
56 Herekino Avenue
Moller Architects
Awarding this constructing, the primary in a multi-stage improvement, the NZIA John Scott Award for Public Structure in 2020, the jury acknowledged, “Embracing the adjoining industrial property vernacular, this whare as warehouse incorporates a Whare Toi, for Māori arts and craft, and a Whare Waka, for canoe restoration. … As with a conventional whare, the Hihiaua Cultural Centre has what one can learn as a mahau, or porch. But this porch is huge: 4 metres vast and 60 metres lengthy, extending alongside the complete face of the constructing for accommodating out of doors social”actions.” See Structure NZ“Might/Jun 2021.
15. 2021– Hundertwasser Artwork Centre
81 Dent Avenue
Friedensreich Hundertwasser
The design is attributed to Hundertwasser in collaboration with HB Structure, Springmann Architektur and The Hundertwasser Non Revenue Basis. Invoice McKay has acknowledged the constructing, which incorporates New Zealand’s solely gallery devoted to Māori artwork, prompts “some basic questions on structure: what it’s, who or what it’s for and the way we do it”. It appears meant to depart tradies empowered, youngsters delighted and designers questioning in the event that they’ve been unsuitable all their careers. Architects ought to go to with a civilian, retaining in thoughts the difficulties that inevitably ensue when architects’ tastes diverge extensively from these of the general public. See Structure NZ Mar/Apr 2022.
Different addresses
J. W. Courtroom Retailer (1943) 41 Walton Avenue Alfred Morgan A slice of streamlined modernism sweeps round a key nook website. See Dwelling & Constructing, Jun 1943.
Carr Brothers Motors (1966) Nook Rathbone and Dent Streets Herb Shattky This automotive dealership is now swamped by signage however the fashionable bones are nonetheless discernible. See Dwelling & Constructing, Oct 1967.
McKay Electrical Constructing (1967) 38 Water Avenue E. T. Smith, Sinclair & Assocs See Dwelling & Constructing, Aug 1968.
Te Matau a Pohe Decrease Hatea Bridge (2013) Dave Culham Drive Knight Architects
SOURCES
A number of normal histories of Whangārei contact on structure, essentially the most helpful of that are Florence Keene’s Between Two Mountains: A Historical past of Whangarei (Auckland: Whitcombe & Tombs, 1966) and Nancy Pickmere’s Whangarei: The Founding Years (Whangarei: N. Pickmere, 1986). Take a look, additionally, at Jenny Bartlett’s Cobwebs and Gables: A Research of Historic Buildings, Locations and Objects in Whangarei (Whangarei: Whangarei Metropolis Planning Dept, 1982). For particular buildings, see M. W. Bartley’s Colonial Architect: The Profession of Edward Bartley 1839–1919 (Wellington: First Version Publishers, 2006) and Stephen Stratford (ed.), Jasmax (Auckland: New Zealand Architectural Publications Belief, 2007). The tutorial Kerry Francis has written a number of scholarly papers on points of Whangārei structure in addition to the Whangārei entries in Julia Gatley’s Lengthy Reside the Trendy (Auckland: Auckland College Press, 2008).
The itinerary sequence is supported by Dulux Colors of New Zealand. Dulux Color Specialist Davina Harper has chosen a Colors of New Zealand palette primarily based on this itinerary. See the complete vary and order color samples right here.
