Council preserves heritage as history doesn’t repeat
Media release
Thursday 11 April
Council preserves heritage as history doesn’t repeat itself
What do an Edwardian home, a yacht club, two chapels, and a couple of old warehouses have in common? They’re all recipients of the latest round of the Wellington City Council’s Built Heritage Incentive Fund – contributing towards seismic strengthening work and conservation around the capital.
Following the latest BHIF round, five applicants were allocated funding from the $100,000 pool to maintain the heritage values of buildings and help keep them safe and resilient in the future.
The fund recognises the importance of conserving, restoring, protecting and caring for buildings in the Wellington City District Plan Heritage List and Heritage Areas, says Chair of the Subcommittee, Councillor Sarah Free.
“A large part of Wellington’s character is made up of the wide variety of heritage sites and buildings from different eras and architectural periods, which are located all over the capital.
“This fund contributes towards protecting and preserving the buildings for resilience, the maintaining of the city’s cultural fabric, and ensuring future generations get to enjoy the history and stories of those who came before,” adds Councillor Free.
Built Heritage Incentive Fund recipients 2018/19 (round 2)
Blair Street
Studios, 19 Blair Street – $25,000 towards seismic
assessment for earthquake strengthening:
• The
buildings are a fine pair of Edwardian warehouses that were
designed in a Classical style.
• This building
is associated with the produce markets in Wellington, which
were held there for over 50 years.
Erskine Chapel, 24 Avon
Street – $30,000 towards strengthening and
redevelopment
• The chapel is the only
substantial remaining heritage listed structure on the
former Erskine College complex. The other buildings on the
site have been recently demolished.
• The
heritage listing encompasses the exterior of the chapel as
well as all moveable fittings and furniture.
•
The interior of the chapel is considered the finest Gothic
interior in New Zealand.
• Significant fittings
include the twelve stained glass windows (from Mayers in
Munich) and the Carrara marble altar.
• The
chapel has architectural, cultural, technological and
aesthetic significance. It was designed by John Sydney Swan
(prominent architect).
Royal Port Nicholson Yacht Club
clubrooms, 103 Oriental Parade – $32,300 towards
earthquake strengthening works
• Clyde Quay Boat
Harbour brings maritime architecture into close proximity
with inner city housing, a juxtaposition that occurs in few
other New Zealand cities.
• It is an existing example
of a building constructed in the Wellington region
specifically for military purposes during the Second World
War.
• The prominence and longevity of the Royal Port
Nicholson Yacht Club with yachting in New Zealand is well
known and the clubhouse is a bastion of the sailing
community in Wellington. Converted into the clubrooms of the
RPNYC in the 1950s.
Futuna Chapel, 67 Friend Street -
$9,700 towards conservation plan update
• An
influential 1960s building that has become a symbol of its
time. It is notable for the way in which it has successfully
synthesized Māori and Pakeha architectural traditions to
create a genuinely local modern architecture.
• The
building has historic value for its association with the
Marist Brothers, and is named after a tragic event in Marist
religious history.
• The building is held in high
public esteem, particularly by the architectural
community.
26 Stoke Street, Newtown - $3,000 towards
external restoration project
• The house is a
substantial Edwardian villa. It is notable for its unusual,
but well-proportioned, street façade, and for its use of a
palette of details and ornamental features that suggests a
North American influence in its design.
• The house is
one of the grandest houses in a streetscape of bungalows and
Edwardian villas. It has some townscape value for its size
and its prominent position at the crest of Stoke Street. It
was owned by Alexander Campbell, a well-known local
builder.
ENDS
Related links:
Wellington.govt.nz/BHIF
Wellington.govt.nz/funding