Q1: Wellington Architecture: A walking guide was first published in 2022 and has been incredibly successful, and now there’s a revised edition. What’s changed?
Wellington, and me. Cities keep changing, even cities, like Wellington, that have been enduring an economic recession. New buildings get built and existing buildings get renovated, or even demolished. A revised edition of a book is an opportunity to catch up with these changes. Also, it’s a chance to to reappraise the respective merits of buildings and their place in a city’s story.
Q2: Of course this new edition required a return, extended visit. Did you sense a new architectural mood or tone?
I think there’s frustration and impatience in the city about the difficulty of getting things done, housing affordability and how long some building projects take. There’s some resignation about the seeming intractability of problems such as the state of Wellington’s water infrastructure. Wellingtonians expect a lot of their city, rightly, but economic conditions and the way New Zealand is governed make it challenging for city councils to meet citizens’ aspirations. Wellington’s waterfront, though, is always wonderful.
Q3: There’s still a lot of rebuilding of heritage buildings going on. That must have complicated things?
Well, building timetables don’t take any account of publishing deadlines. There’ll always be buildings that aren’t quite finished. I’m sure lengthy heritage projects, like the rehabilitation of Wellington’s Town Hall and City Gallery, do complicate things for the city. Hopefully, it’ll all be worth it.
Q4: You’ve included quite number of churches. Favourites?
Church architecture is a feature of inner-city Wellington, and thankfully the owners of churches take a longer-term view of their assets than real estate developers. My current favourite Wellington churches have both benefited from recent restoration — St Mary of the Angels on Boulcott Street and Sacred Heart Cathedral on Hill Street. The cathedral, especially, is a revelation. It opened in 1901 and is the only North Island building by the Dunedin basilica architect Francis Petre. The cathedral was in poor condition when it was closed in 2018 for six years of remediation work, directed by architect Jane Kelly. It has a very attractive Classical portico, and an airy, uncluttered interior that even a Presbyterian might find inspiring.
Q5: Since the last book, new buildings have clustered ever closer to the harbour edge. What are some standouts here?
The most significant waterfront-adjacent new buildings are the tower at 1 Whitfield Street and Tākina, the convention centre on Cable Street, opposite Te Papa. Both are sleek and curvy — a welcome departure from the orthodox rectangular box. And — not a building and a few years old now, but new to the book — the work at Oriental Bay that added a swimming beach and boardwalk beside Freyberg Pool. It’s a very popular landscape intervention.
Q6: Most interesting new building in general?
Probably Heke Rua, the new building for New Zealand’s National Archives, situated on Aitken Street, beside the National Library — interesting as much for its significance as its architecture. Heke Rua signals a commitment to preserving the nation’s documentary heritage and making it available to all citizens. It’s an impressive building — let’s hope there’ll be enough librarians and archivists left to staff it.
Q7: The city does a streetscape so well, doesn’t it? Where’s a place to stand and look that delivers a lot to an admirer of buildings?
The stretch of Oriental Parade north of Freyberg Pool. You can see the houses and apartment buildings lining New Zealand’s best promenade and, across the harbour, the architecture of the CBD.
Q8: Favourite bijoux building?
If a wharenui qualifies as a ‘bijoux building’, then the whare whakairo (carved meeting house) Te Tumu Herenga Waka at Victoria University’s Kelburn campus, would be the one. Carvers led by master carver Tākirirangi Smith adorned all the timber surfaces of the pan-iwi whare, which sits behind Ngā Mokopuna, a building designed and constructed to meet exacting sustainability standards.
Q9: And favourite behemoth (well, in Wellington terms)?
Probably still the former AMP Building on Customhouse Quay, designed in Renaissance palazzo style by Frederick de Jersey Clere in the late 1920s and clad in warm Sydney sandstone.
Q10: Wellington has been a bit down in the dumps lately. Might this book cheer locals up?
I hope so, them and visitors. Wellingtonians have always cared about, and have been intensely loyal to their city, whatever it’s going through. Central Wellington is New Zealand’s most compact and diverting urban environment. For anyone interested in architecture and history, it’s a great place to walk around.
