Local gem restored and ready for tenants
ONE of Wellington’s oldest residents has finally received the makeover it deserves.
The heritage-listed Old Public Trust Building has endured a lot since it was first built in 1908 – from earthquakes, to threats of demolition, to attempted (and failed) restorations.
But now, 107 years on, it has undergone a $10 million restoration, all thanks to Wellington developer and engineer Maurice Clark.
The earthquake strengthening and restoration of a heritage building was not an easy task, but the end result was well worth it, Clark said.
The Edwardian baroque style building, completed in 1909 by government architect John Campbell, is Wellington’s only surviving building made of a true New Zealand granite.
This building is one of the very few category 1 listed buildings in the capital and ranks alongside Old St Paul’s Cathedral, which was saved from the wreckers in 1966 after a groundswell of public opinion.
The design was a semi-official style for police stations, courthouses and post offices throughout the country.
Clark wanted to stay true to the style of the building and made every attempt to replicate the damaged detailing, he said.
‘‘I’ve done a fair amount of heritage buildings so I knew it would be a major task. We’ve tended to every crack in the building, we’ve bolted some loose bits back on, we’ve steam cleaned the whole building.’’
When Clark bought the building in January 2014 and stripped it back, he found quite a lot of damage, he said. They were forced to pull up the original matai floor.
‘‘Because of the strengthening and because we had two strong points at each end we had to lift it all and pour a big concrete slab.’’
When he first took on the job, he had concerns about the facade on the outside and knew strengthening the building would be a big job.
‘‘[It was] far more difficult than the original engineers first thought. But everything is now locked together with concrete and it’s all been taken down to the new foundations.’’
Clark described it was one of his most difficult projects to date.
The restoration work was undertaken by Clark’s construction firm McKee Fehl, with architects Warren and Mahoney. The two companies also collaborated on the restoration of Defence House across the road in Stout St.
The Ministry of Culture and Heritage will move in on Tuesday and its ground floor tenant, a Jamie Oliver restaurant, will open early next year.
Ministry of Culture and Heritage chief executive Paul James said they were delighted to be moving into the Old Public Trust Building.
‘‘It seems fitting that an agency with the word heritage in their name should come into a building like this . . . it’s a beautiful building and it played a really important part in the life of government in the early years.’’
The building would become their home for the next 15 years, James said.