Memory box
Ever the pedant, I was rather surprised by the recent announcement that the South Bloc building on Hamilton’s Anglesea Street had been given a Heritage award in the 2017 NZ Architecture Awards.
The building’s makeover is laudable, and a great credit to developer Matt Stark and Edwards White Architects, but the remodelling of a mid-20th century Ministry of Works office building can hardly compare to this year’s other Heritage award winner, the restored Christchurch Arts Centre’s Clock Tower and Great Hall.
South Bloc is not listed by Heritage New Zealand, nor is it scheduled on the Hamilton City Council district plan. It has never, as far as I am aware, been identified as one of the city’s heritage buildings.
Now, while some folk may think that I am ‘heritage-hugger’, someone who considers every building to be a significant heritage resource that must be preserved at all cost, I am too much the pedant to hold such a loose view. Rather I believe there is a clear distinction between significant heritage resources, which must be protected according to section 6(f) of the RMA, and character buildings, that add interest to our built environment and may become local landmarks over time.
The South Bloc remodelling has enhanced its streetscape appearance but, unlike the demonstrable heritage values of the Founders’ Memorial Theatre, for example, it is hard to see where an assessment of heritage significance may have come from.
Previous Heritage award winners, including the National War Memorial in Wellington, the Auckland Art Gallery and the Colin McCahon cottage, have me thinking that the restoration of Euphrasie House would have made a much more obvious choice for this award, if only the Catholic diocese had asked Matt Stark to lend his drive and vision to that project.
Meanwhile, a cluster of scheduled heritage buildings in Te Awamutu are the focus of a different kind of heritage awareness. The local genealogy group is appealing to past owners and staff who have a story or two to tell about Fowlers Building, Burchell’s Building, Thompson Bros Building, Burns House, Alexandra Buildings, Gifford’s Building, Teasdale Building and Spinley’s Building’s.
The goal is to compile the social history of each one to augment and illuminate the design and construction history that has already been researched.
Pictured here is Spinley’s Building’s, which was built in the late 1920s and features a fine sampling of classical motifs above the verandah, culminating in a draped wreath below a drum and flagpole. G Spinley & Co. were wheelwrights in Te Awamutu in the first decade of the 20th century and George Spinley (1879-1968) was a local body politician from the 1920s through to the early 1940s, serving as both a borough councillor and Mayor of Te Awamutu.
The family name is also given to the road that bisects Hazelmere Crescent, north of Te Awamutu Intermediate.
Family histories can support heritage assessments in the same way that heritage buildings can enlighten genealogical research. Readers are invited to email teawamutu@geneaoligy.org.nz if they can help the project team. This information will underpin the historic and social heritage values of the buildings that adorn Te Awamutu’s town centre.