Contractors salvage glass relic
Council mulling over future of 106-year-old stained glass windows
Arelic of Tauranga’s civic history dating as far back as 106 years has been salvaged as work to demolish the former council administration building continues.
The stained glass window formed part of the Tauranga City Council’s main entrance on Willow St and was created in 1989. It featured the panelling of two windows created from the damaged glass of the old town hall which stood in the same location from 1916 to 1987. Information provided by creative industries consultancy Supercut Projects stated that when architect Ian Carter was looking for art projects, as part of the construction of the new city council and library civic precinct, he selected two designs from Viewpoint studio by artist Neale Blaymires.
Blaymires and fellow artist Paula Dennison were commissioned to construct the two designs. The first creation was titled From Chaos to Order. This was the window above the Willow St entrance.
This large work depicted the “big bang” with a crystal-studded nucleus exploding blue and red glass across a blue sky.
A Ma¯ori design element, a single streak of clear glass, was contributed by renowned master carver Tuti Tukaokao. At the centre of the work are two windows from the original town hall.
The two windows, originally four damaged town hall windows, were salvaged by Blaymires and Dennison who restored them with designs incorporating floral arrangements with garlands of red roses and “heavenly trumpet” flowers, draped and suspended within panes.
The second stained glass creation was titled Creation of Language. This was placed above the entrance to the library. It was a semicircle with three sections of distorted vowels floating across panels.
A poutama (stairway to heaven) pattern sat at the base of the work, the information said.
Last week, the windows were carefully removed by contractors tasked with the demolition of the threestorey building. Nothing was broken in the process.
Council senior programme manager Beau Fraser said contractor LT Mcguiness had nearly completed the soft strip out of the building “which involved removing the canopies on the sides of the building and an interior strip out”.
Scaffolding was being put up for the next stage of external demolition.
The demolition is expected to be completed in October.
Fraser said the stained glass windows were now being stored with the council’s heritage collection facility and the council was “currently exploring options” for how they can best be displayed and enjoyed by the community in the future.