ARCHITECTURE

in NEW ZEALAND

Architecture of Prosperty
1870-1910

Most Photos from NEW ZEALAND ARCHITECTURE By Peter Shaw/Photographs by Robin Morrison

Architect by Walter Robertson. It was a simple, box-like, bluestone church until Matthew Henderson embellished it in 1882 with a Doric portico and an elaborate steeple.

Architect by Grainger & D'Ebro.The Melbourne architects utilised many different stylistic features to produce a building whose exuberance reflects its status as New Zealand's first permanent art gallery.

The Leys Institute Ponsonby Community Library
St Marys Road, Ponsonby Auckland/1905

On the 29th March 1905 a magnificent library was opened in Ponsonby. The library was founded through the gracious and generous dedication of the Leys family who wished to provide the community with an institution that would combine instruction with rational recreation. Photo by Byunguh Yu on 19 July 2008.

Architect by Samuel Hurst Seager. The use of polychromic brickwork window surrounds is typical of Victorian Gothic but the newly fashionable Queen Anne style marked a significant departure from Gothic precedents in Christchurch. Photo by Byunguh Yu on February 2003.

Sign Of Takahe
Cashmere Hills, Christchurch/1908-1949

Architect by Harry (H.G.) Ell as the major building of a series of staging points along an unbroken route to the Akaroa Summit. The first stone was laid in 1908 but, following an extraordinary string of events, the building didn’t open until 1949 two years after the Christchurch City Council took control. It has a totally unique two story asymmetrical plan encompassing entirely different architectural styles. Photo by Byunguh Yu on February 2003.

Architect originally by Thomas Turnbull in a Gothic-style so that it would sit appropriately beside William Clayton's wooden Gothic Parliament Buildings(1873), destroyed by fire in 1907. John Campbell's/Government architect design after it was decided to reduce the number of storeys from three to two. This building represents one of the few examples of the high Victorian gothic left in Wellington. The original 3-storey, Turnbull was judged to be too expensive by the government. A 2-storey modification was not acceptable to Turnbull, so the final work, completed in 1899.

Architect by John Campbell. Now in Belgian Beer Cafe-Photo by Byunguh Yu on 19 July 2008.

John Campbell, the government architect, and Claude Paton designed this building. Only half of the designed structure has ever been built. It was built 1912 & 1922. The facing is South Island Takaka marble. The building is asymmetric because the second wing to the left of the main enterance was never erected. However the classical colonnade gives the building a solid dignity. Photo by Byunguh Yu on February 2003.

Architect by Sir George Troup. Its flamboyant Baroque manner reflects the confidence in rail as twentieth century's major mode of transport. Photo by Byunguh Yu on February 2003.

One of Auckland's best known landmarks, the Ferry Building was completed in 1921 for £67,944. Between 1957 & 1963, it is reported to have been steam-cleaned for almost half as much again £30,000. The Edwardian Baroque building was architect by Alexander Wiseman and is built of sandstone and brick on a base of Coromandel granite.Still the focal point for the commuter ferries which link Downtown with the North Shore and the many islands of the Waitemata Harbour. Detail showing a semicircular multi-paned window and a bull's eye window decorated with a sculpted swag. Many of the building's decorative features demonstrate the architect's familiarity with the English Baroque architecture of Sir Chistopher Wren.

Rotorua Museum of Art & History, Architect by W.J.Trigg & B.S. Corlett, based on an idea by Dr A.S.Wohlmann in 1908. Although its half-timbered gables, strapwork wood panelling and towers are Elizabethan, that did not prevent the building of a verandah along its front so that patrons could promenade after talking the waters.

Architect by Collins & Harman. Gothic style, it has large, interestingly varied windows and a fine oriel tower. Photo by Byunguh Yu on February 2003.

Architect by F.W.Petre. This massive basilica, designed to rival the city's Gothic Anglican Cathedral, uses the full battery of Italian and French Classical influences. The arches and pendentives that rise from the supporting piers of the sanctuary, and the colonnades that rise up three floor into the interior of the doom, create an effect of enormous grandeur. Down near the railway yards and the gasworks. Photo by Byunguh Yu on February 2003.

Architect by F.W.Petre. The basilica exploits the contrast between red brick work and cream Oamaru stone. Perte was probably influenced by J.F.Bentley's Byzantine Westminster Cathedral(1895-1903), London. Photo by Byunguh Yu on February 2003.

Enter of Puhoi where first settled by Bohemian migrants in 1863. It is small, peaceful settlement, nestled in a stream-divided valley and flanked by bush-clad hills. Photo by Byunguh Yu on 20 April 2002.

Old Bank Arcade & Chambers/former Bank of NZ
Corner of Lambton & Customhouse Quays, Wellington/1899

The former Head Office of the BNZ was built between 1899 & 1901 in renaissance classical style. The architect was Thomas Turnbull. Decorative elements include paired lions' heads, pediments above first-floor windows and balustrading on the corner of this imposing building.

Although the gothic-style church and monastery appear to be one building, the church dates from 1910 (J.S.Dwan/architect) and the manastery from 1932 (F.de J.Clere). Both were built for the Catholic Redemptionist Fathers. Original verandahs on the front of the monasyery were closed in because of the notorious nor-westerly winds of Wellington. Photo by Byunguh Yu on February 2003.