Warren and Mahoney turn 60
AUSTRALASIAN architectural firm Warren and Mahoney has marked 60 years with the official opening of a new office in Christchurch.
Ten years ago it had three New Zealand offices and 65 staff; now it has 230 employees and six offices straddling the Tasman.
The firm’s expansion had been part strategic and part opportunistic, managing director Peter Marshall said.
The growth had been in response to opportunities in the Christchurch rebuild as well as ‘‘incredible’’ growth in Auckland.
Founders Sir Miles Warren and Maurice Mahoney built a generalist practice, starting in 1965 with commissions in Timaru and the Dorset St flats in Christchurch.
Today the firm has studio offices in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown, Sydney and Melbourne.
The markets were different and the firm hired specialists with ‘‘particular skills and typologies’’, to service them, Marshall said.
The practice had been built on a generalist approach but like many businesses it was becoming more specialised.
The senior architects were increasingly involved in ‘‘how we do and what we do’’ questions, like in-house reviews, code compliance and ‘‘looking after people’’.
It was ‘‘really critical’’ for the firm’s managers to stay connected to the larger staff, Marshall said.
The firm’s fully-tenanted, three-storey office in Christchurch was also occupied by engineers Holmes Consulting and quantity surveyors Rider Levett Bucknall. All three contributed to the build.
The $20 million building is owned by Canterbury Property Investments, who began the project after buying the site of the demolished Scales House.