Hastings Municipal Buildings – Matthews & Matthews Heritage Architects

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. It’s my pleasure to introduce Justin Matthews from Matthews & Matthews Architects, heritage architects, and as you might know Justin worked on the Municipal building, and Matthews & Matthews was the recipient of the big award – with no money attached [chuckles] – from the Landmarks Trust, the Jeremy Dwyer Award. So I think it’s ‘specially appropriate that Justin’s come along here this evening to talk about his work on this building. Thank you.

Justin Matthews:  Tena koutou katoa; thank you for coming. Yes, my name’s Justin Matthews from Matthews & Matthews Architects. We’re a firm of architects that specialise in heritage and community based projects. We have an office here in Hastings and also one in Auckland, and we’ve completed a number of projects throughout the upper and central North Island areas. So tonight I’m just going to talk about the restoration of the Hastings Municipal Chambers building which is a project that we were involved with for a period of four years from design to completion, so I want to share the story of what is one of the most significant restoration projects undertaken in Hawke’s Bay in probably recent memory. The presentation will take you behind the scenes of the design and construction process and the talk runs for about forty-five minutes, so hopefully I can stick to that time frame. Make yourself comfortable and I hope you enjoy it.

The Municipal Building has over a hundred years of collective memory, making it one of Hastings most beloved and valued buildings. Closure to the public in 2014 marked a sombre period in the building’s history; its future was uncertain, and Council were faced with the prospect of either demolishing the building or strengthening it and saving it. In 2016 following a process of public consultation and also a referendum, the decision was fortunately made to save the building, both the Opera House and the Municipal buildings. So this is where the long road to restoration [was] begun.

Why then do we save and restore old buildings? Well to help answer this question I just want to cite another architect Tim Greer from Australia – who is actually a New Zealander but works in Australia. And he’s a prominent architect working in the fields of heritage and adaptive reuse. So in an interview Tim was asked, “Why do we love old buildings and why do we go to the trouble and expense of saving them?” Greer explains that buildings embody memories, and as such our cities and our buildings are reflective of collective conscientiousness. Our built environments express cultural value. So what does this mean? Well for me it means the buildings are not simply objects. Through the continuity of time and history they embody the life and energy of their community. In Maori and Pacifica cultures, past, present and future are entwined; the past is intrinsically linked to the present. In providing a connection with the past our built heritage, in my view, shapes our contemporary identity. Heritage provides meaning in the present which in turn generates diversity and vibrancy which is important to our built environments in our cities today. The Municipal Building is an exemplar of this; community support to save the building together with the many community stories and memories that it embodies, show that it has transcended being simply a building, and has now become a treasure and a taonga.

So the first thing we do in any restoration project is to find out as much about the building as possible. We start by researching the building’s history to learn about its social and cultural significance; we also research drawings, plans and photographs to find out about the original design intentions plus any changes and alterations that may’ve occurred during the building’s life. I’m going to focus primarily on the restoration project, but I will talk briefly about and outline some of the history of the building.

At the turn of the twentieth century the growth of Hastings created the need for new council chambers and offices of a suitable stateliness and grandeur. There was also the need to replace the outsized town hall and theatre. In 1911 the then mayor James Garnett purchased land for the purpose of building a new theatre and council chambers. The Municipal theatre, now known as the Opera House, was constructed first and was opened in 1915. In that same year an architectural competition, limited to Hastings-based architects, was run for the design of the Municipal buildings. The winning architect was Albert Garnett. If that name sounds familiar Albert was the son of the former mayor James Garnett; James Garnett had however passed away in 1913 while still in office, and he never actually got to see his son’s designs for the Municipal building.

Garnett’s elaborate design was undertaken in a Neo-Renaissance, or Free Classical style. As the name suggests this is a free use of classical elements, motifs and decoration, but without the strict adherence to strict academic rules of proportion and arrangement. In many ways the design is somewhat eclectic; features such as the prominent central tower, the grand staircase, the colonnade of Ionic ordered columns on the first floor balcony, oval and circular windows, elaborate pediments, heavily rusticated walls and openings and the oversized corbels supporting the balconies culminated in a dramatic design which can also be a attributed to Edwardian Baroque.

Construction of the Municipal began in 1916 and the building was opened in 1917, [and] was constructed by Stanley Brothers Construction for a tender sum of around £12,000. The building has a reinforced concrete column and beam structure with solid brick masonry walls. Floors at both levels are made of reinforced concrete; large steel trusses span the Assembly Hall, and the finishes are generally solid plaster render with solid plaster decorative detailing. Window and door joinery is both timber and steel. The Municipal was designed for civic and commercial purposes. The upper level was dedicated for civic facilities while the ground floor was planned for eight commercial tenancies. These were intended to repay and help recoup the extensive cost of the construction. The council chambers and offices located on the first floor were accessed from Hastings Street. The former council chambers, now known as the Shakespeare room, is highly decorated and is the most elaborate space in the building. The largest space is the Assembly Hall which features a sprung timber dance floor, [loud noise] the small stage area and a mezzanine gallery. This space is accessed from the building’s main entrance, and Heretaunga Street.

Fortunately the Municipal survived the devastating 1931 earthquake; however it wasn’t completely unscathed – there was partial collapse of the Heretaunga Street pediments and canopies which is shown in this early photograph here. After the earthquake heavy temporary bracing was put in to prevent further collapse which is in this photo; there’s one brave soul testing the propping. Following the earthquake work was quickly undertaken to repair the façade, which is captured in this photo.  So from its opening in 1917 the Municipal has served the community in many different ways. It remained as council chambers and offices until 1977. Various organisations have let the building at different times, and the ground floor was occupied by local furniture retailer, Hutchinsons, for a period of sixty-three years from 1951 to 2014 when the building was closed. There are many memories and stories about civic and social functions held in the Assembly Hall including meetings, commemorative events, dances, weddings, balls, concerts and plays; I myself remember attending many plays and schools balls there as a youngster. Over the years there’ve been many changes and alterations made to the Municipal; the most significant of these were the addition of the Supper room and kitchen in 1924, and also renovations carried out between 2004 and 2007.

So as with the original design of 1914 the restoration project of 2018 was run as an architectural competition limited to local architects. The competition was run and judged by a small working group made up of council representatives and consultants. There wasn’t a prescriptive brief but instead there was a guiding document with a focus on redeveloping the arts and cultural precinct together with the opera house. At this time the opera house was also undergoing seismic strengthening and restoration of its own. The end use for the Municipal was unknown and we were invited to present ideas for suitable functions and uses; whether this be civic, commercial or a mix was entirely up to us. The best outcome, we felt, was for the Municipal to continue to serve the community. We decided to focus on civic and community based concepts. This included performing arts, visual arts, gallery spaces, food and hospitality, and spaces for education and cultural gatherings. During the design we worked with local artists and educator Dena Aroha Bach, who became a mentor. Dena’s connections with hapu and her arts community were pivotal in developing the cultural and artistic aspects of our proposals. Dena reached out to various groups to ask what they would like to see in an arts centre. The responses included spaces that are designed to be open and inviting and to be flexible, and spaces that tell local stories; and also education spaces for whanau and tamariki. So when we first visited the Municipal in 2018 our first impression was how dark and drab it felt. The interior colours and furnishings were dated and heavy, and a number of alterations had cut natural light to several spaces, most notably to the main stair foyers, the original light well, and to the Assembly Hall. The idea of returning the light therefore seemed obvious; it soon became idea and driver of many of our design decisions. We wanted the building to feel open, light, transparent and accessible; we wanted to celebrate and enhance the building as a public space, and above all we wanted to see the light and life of the community returned. We also looked closely at the relationship of the Municipal to it’s surroundings … so to its physical and social context, and this allowed us to develop ideas about how connections to the city could be improved.

Our design concepts included the following proposals: the creation of new exterior laneways to better connect the Municipal with the city; the idea was to make the site more accessible and draw people in; and bring light and activity to the building’s fringes. So this is the preliminary drawing that we did early on, just looking at the circulation spaces and pathways through the building. [Shows drawing] This is Heretaunga Street along the bottom and then Hastings Street along the side; the Opera House is at the top and the Municipal is this building in the centre.  We looked at creating or extending what was an existing laneway but pushing it through the site between the Opera House and the Municipal building – so this is this area up through here – which then intersected with another laneway that we looked at creating which ran in a north-south direction, connecting from Heretaunga Street all the way through to Eastbourne Street. We looked at improving entrances and pathways through the building, [and] the first area was to free up the main entrance foyer in Heretaunga Street. This involved removing and relocating the lift that had been added in the 2000s; the lift impeded and blocked the space. It’s removal allowed the entry to be open through to the rear laneway and provide a connection to the Opera House on the opposite side. The main stair lobby at the upper level was originally designed as a double height space; in about the 1970s a room had been inserted into this space reducing its height and volume. So we proposed to remove the wall; [crash] we wanted to recreate a sense of grandeur and openness upon entering the building. So this is a cross section through the main entrance foyer to the building; this is Heretaunga Street on this side; this is the main entrance foyer in here with the stair, so the lift actually sat in this area here, and there was no way of getting through this space to the rear of the site. So we proposed to open this up and create a new connection through to a lobby space in here, that then opened out and flowed out and connected into the proposed new laneway which is through here.

And then at the upper level of the main stair, at the top of the stair, a floor had actually been added in halfway through this space and actually cut through these windows. That was done in about the 1970s, so we proposed to take that floor out to reinstate this double height space at the top of the stair. We also proposed to form a new pathway from the Hastings Street foyer, through the light well and leading back to the main foyer at Heretaunga Street. This would create a connection that previously didn’t exist. This is this green pathway through here; so this is Hastings Street here; this is the existing entry foyer from Hastings Street which has a stair which then leads up to the council chambers and offices at first floor level. And this was closed off through there, and so we proposed to form new doors and openings that then connected through the light well and then back to the main entrance foyer, which is this yellow area here. So the main entrance foyer – the lift actually sat in here and there was a wall through here, so we proposed to open that right up to connect through the laneway. So the whole idea was just to provide better connection between various spaces in the building that previously didn’t exist, to make the building more flexible.

In the original planning there were eight individual tenancies and shops at ground level. We proposed to open these up to create a large community arts and cultural hub … a flexible space that could be used for a variety of arts and community activities. Each tenancy originally had its own shop front entrance way; over the years a majority of these had been removed and closed in, so we proposed to reinstate them. We also designed new entrances off the laneways; these were positioned to make it possible to see into and through the building. The intent was to improve the physical and visual connections between the exterior and interior. So again, this is Heretaunga Street; Hastings Street here; this is the western end of the building, so there were a total of five individual tenancies through there – each one of these bays was an individual tenancy. So we proposed to open up as much as we could and interconnect this for a variety of cultural and arts activities. We then also proposed to reinstate the shop front entrances that had been removed to each one of those bays. There was only one that existed in this end of the building so we proposed to put them back, and we proposed to align them through with new entrances that flowed out into the laneway. There was this sort of visual connection right through, and also a physical one, right through the building, and the whole idea around that was to enliven and bring activity right around the building’s fringes to make it sort of more public and open.  On the corner of Hastings and Heretaunga Streets we also proposed to locate a restaurant into those three original tenancies in there; to open those up and create one restaurant. And again, the idea was to activate and enliven that corner which had always been fairly dead.

The Assembly Hall at the upper level originally had windows along both sides of the space which were designed to match each other. In the 1920s the kitchen and supper room were added to the south side of the Assembly Hall and the windows along the rear façade were removed and filled in. As part of the new seismic work the kitchen and supper room had to be removed meaning that the original windows and façades could be reinstated along that southern elevation. We knew that this would significantly improve the light quality in the hall. This is the Assembly Hall in here at the western end of the building; so previously there was an addition made in the 1920s for a supper room and kitchen in this area between the opera house and the Assembly Hall. It wasn’t possible to strengthen that building and in fact it undermined the strengthening work that was proposed for the rest of the building so a decision was made to remove those areas which meant that all of the windows along this façade could be reinstated to match the windows along the main street façade, which was the way the building was originally designed. So this is a cross section through the Assembly Hall and it actually shows some of those windows that we were proposing to reinstate, so you can see that they match the windows along the northern façade. This is where there the supper room and kitchen were added in the 1920s, just at the upper level – they were built over old service yards. We actually wanted to reuse the timber trusses when it was demolished, that came out of the supper room and kitchen; unfortunately there’d been an earlier fire in the building which meant that we weren’t able to reuse those, so the roof structure had to be a new one over the laneway.

Seismic strengthening … so seismic strengthening was to be a major part of the project. The next stage was for us to be bought in with structural engineers. The building contractor was also involved at an early design stage. There were two aspects to the structural design. One was the seismic strengthening, and the other was new structure required for the architectural improvements. Before our involvement, and prior to the future use of the building being known, the structural engineers had prepared a seismic design for the building as it was. Our job at this point was to bring together and coordinate the architectural concepts with these structural designs. This involved a fair amount of change to the strengthening design, mainly to areas that needed to be opened up but also to accommodate things like building services, in particular, heating and ventilation systems. The strengthening and architectural proposals were significant. As a Category 1 Listed Heritage Building, careful management of heritage impact was essential. Planning and Heritage New Zealand approval for the project was required for a resource consent process. As part of this process we carried out heritage impact analysis; this allows us to identify impacts and how to minimise and remediate them. A detailed assessment of affects was also submitted with the consent application.  There are in general two approaches to seismic strengthening. One is to add structural capacity to the existing structure, and the other is to create what is in effect to create a new independent structure within the existing building. The objective for the Municipal was to achieve a NBS [New Building Standard] grading well in excess of the sixty-seven percent threshold for earthquake risk building. I think the goal was around seventy-five percent, or even higher. The NBS, or New Building Standard, is a method of analysing and comparing strengthening and design of an existing building with that of a new building designed to be a hundred percent compliant with current building codes or structural codes. So this is our computer model; the areas in red are the new structure that we’ve added to the building – this is a 3D image of a cut-through the ground floor showing the new column and beam structure that was added. You can see it out here the location of the new concrete columns that were required on the ground floor.

I’ve also included some sketch drawings that we did, just for [the] purpose of working out and coordinating what was happening with structure throughout the building, and how that impacted the existing architecture. To achieve the highest NBS rating an independent heavy masonry structural system was employed. This involved the construction of a new concrete column and beam structure at ground level, so that was as per the previous slide with the red areas showing the new concrete column and beam structure. These are the new columns and new beams that we added along the front face of the building which you can see [are] actually completely independent of the existing structure, which is the existing columns here and existing beams through here. This is [a] photo showing those columns and beams being constructed prior to being poured, and you’ll see there’s an extensive amount of structural steel work.

The building was also originally constructed over the Makirikiri Stream, [loud noise] which in the late nineteenth century was diverted below ground. A shallow but heavy strip concrete foundation system was employed for the alluvial river stone ground conditions. Extensive cutting through the existing concrete floor slab and excavation work was carried out to form large foundations. So yeah, just some images of the foundations being poured; you can see they’re very wide but relatively shallow – that was to suit the ground conditions but had an enormous impact on the building at ground floor level. I couldn’t find a photo but there was an instance of where an existing column had been excavated underneath and actually had to be stropped and held in place while that work was being carried out. So it was held up by straps – it was just incredible – I mean, very strong straps. [Chuckles]

So the construction methodology and location of new structure had to be carefully considered to minimise impact. While this was possible in many areas a significant amount of disruption and dismantling of the building had to occur. So again, this is from our computer model, just showing the red areas which are new structure added to the building. These are actually skin walls which I’ll talk about in a minute, but you can see they run right throughout the building so it was inevitable that there was going to be some disruption and undoing the building needed. So some of the main areas impacted by the strengthening design were the following: this shows where the supper room and kitchen were after being demolished, along the south side of the Assembly Hall; so that’s after demolition. This is the south elevation of the Shakespeare Room, so new strengthening walls were applied to the outside face of that wall; this is actually after the wall had been finished, but it meant that the original decorative detailing had to be removed, and then we put it back to match what was originally there. So all of this rustication along the cornice here … the cornices, the pediments and all the window surrounds are new decoration that was put back to match the original.

There was also a huge amount of effect on ceilings, and removal of decorative cornices to ceilings throughout the building as a result of new strengthening walls that needed to be put in place. Generally all the cornice work which you can see down here … plaster cornices; there were also pressed metal ones … but they were taken down carefully and salvaged for reuse, and put back. There were some areas that we needed to form new cornices in and they were reformed from plaster casts taken off existing cornices, so they were put back as new ones. There was also removal of all the shop fronts that I’ve talked about previously.

In the main entrance lobby there were also new columns that were cut into the existing walls, so this involved the removal of tiling work and the dado tiling around the base of the tiles. These are the tiles here; we managed to salvage most of those and they could be reused. These tiles weren’t original to the building and we’re not sure exactly when they date from, but they’re a part of the story of the building so it was important that we put them back. In some areas we had to come up with clever solutions to replace those tiles where we couldn’t … in the end we ended up with a few short, so the contractor came up with the idea of recreating them in glass and painting the back of them to match the original colours; and you wouldn’t know. There’s just a handful of those, but you wouldn’t know.  This is the new opening being formed in the main entrance lobby; this is where the lift sat in here, so that’s after it’d been removed. There was also a new structural strengthening wall required to the main entrance stair from Hastings Street which had a major impact on that stair, which I’ll talk about a little bit later; and also there was the opening being formed for the new lift, so there was a huge amount of impact on the building as it was.

So lateral support and strengthening of brickwork walls was needed throughout the building. This involved forming new support walls called skin walls, and these were applied to existing brickwork faces. So this is a photo of the south elevation of the Assembly Hall once the supper room had been removed, and you can see at the base of the wall these are the new skin walls being poured; the reinforcing in place, and also new form work around the existing openings that were being formed on the upper level; and new openings along the ground floor level. So these skin walls are 150mm thick reinforced concrete, so fairly heavy construction. And they ran generally around the entire exterior of the building and in some places in the interior also.

This slide is of the inside of the Assembly Hall whilst that work on the outside was being carried out. The reason for the propping was that whilst the concrete was being poured and wet, it’s extremely heavy and there was a risk that the weight of that while it was still curing could actually potentially push the Assembly wall over; so it required propping while that work was done until the concrete had strengthened and cured to a point where it met design capacity. So those props were put in place until that was achieved. They were actually propped back to one of the new column and beam lines on the ground floor. But you know, there were sort of consequential things which meant that the timber flooring had to be uplifted to allow that work to happen. And also you can probably just see all these little holes in the walls – that was something we weren’t entirely aware of that was going to happen, but that was actually required for drilling through the walls to enable the shutter work for the strengthening walls to be tied in place while the concrete was being poured. We had to carefully monitor where those holes were formed, so avoiding too much damage and disruption to the decorative detailing inside the Assembly Hall. Skin walls were used extensively.

Depending on the location two types of systems were used – either reinforced, poured in-situ concrete, or timber frame walls. We had to come up with some sort of clever detailing around openings and to not compromise the way that the original windows were expressed.

Another requirement was seismic separation from neighbouring buildings. In an earthquake neighbouring buildings need to be able to move independently of each other. This meant that a 600mm wide seismic gap was needed along the western boundary where the building had joined the former Hawke’s Bay Electric Power Board building. This involved dismantling the original boundary wall which was one of the heaviest in the building. It was made up of four skins of brickwork almost half a metre thick, and it ran full height, two storeys, all the way up to the building parapet. That’s the wall being demolished almost brick by brick. This is the original neighbouring wall of the Hawke’s Bay Electric Power Board building being demolished; this is after the wall had been removed, so you can see this gap between the two buildings which had been formed, so that’s a 600mm wide seismic gap. Taking away the wall obviously took away the end support for the Assembly Hall above, so this floor had to be re-engineered to cantilever for that little portion, which was a huge amount of work in itself. I’ll probably say that a lot, ‘a huge amount of work’, ‘cause everything was a huge amount of work.

Major strengthening work was required to the roof – new structural steel trusses, rafters and beams, and a new plywood diaphragms were constructed. This involved removing and replacing the entire roofing. This also provided the opportunity to improve the weather tightness of the roof, and also strengthening of parapets and pediments was carried out. So this is the roof after the roofing had been taken off; the whole building was shrink wrapped and covered. These are the new plywood diaphragms being formed; so the purpose of those is to provide a horizontal brace which essentially ties the roof structure to the walls to provide horizontal bracing.It’s hard to see, but there was also new structural steel members added along the side of every single original steel truss, to stiffen and strengthen them. And a new structural steel frame that was added in over the roof to the Shakespeare Room. This is actually a new pediment, but all the pediments were reinforced by drilling and inserting new reinforcing ties through them to tie them back to the building, and also bracing to the back of them.

The work onsite was carried out in two stages, with the structural strengthening work being the first stage and then the architectural fitout and restoration as the second stage. Demolition and structural strengthening took over a year to complete onsite. As the work progressed we continued with the design and of the architectural fitout. There were a number of changes made during this time that were driven by operational and also budget requirements. The scope of work in the budget for the laneway was under review for quite some time, in particular whether or not it would have a covered roof. In the end it was decided that having a weather protected outdoor space would be an important asset for the building. So this is some photos of the laneway under construction, and yeah, in the end it was decided that we would have a roof; so a new steel roof which had to be seismically separated from either one of the buildings, but in the end it was decided it was best to seismically separate it from the Opera House, which is along this side here.

Just various drawings that we did as we developed the design and various concepts. It was never really a certainty how this space would be developed. The ground floor spaces also underwent significant design, development and change. Council went through a process of exploring various tenancy options including spaces for educational institutions, and at one point, a sound recording studio. The final layout and configuration of the ground floor was resolved as prospective tenants were confirmed. This is an earlier option that we did for the western end of the building; this is Heretaunga Street running along here, this is that laneway I showed you before along the western boundary, and this is the laneway down here. Yeah, this scheme was to provide educational and meeting room spaces which were in here, and also for a recording studio in the end bay in that building.

One of the things that we were really conscious of and really wanted to maintain was this idea of visual and physical connection from the street right through the building, and we could achieve that with layouts like this; by glazing meeting rooms and that sort of thing and still allowing connection. But a recording studio is a completely different thing and needs to be enclosed and so I’m actually really glad in some ways that this didn’t eventuate ‘cause it would have really closed off this end of the building, and I think probably made it quite dead. So we did this instead.

One change was to relocate the restaurant from where we had originally proposed on the corner of Heretaunga and Hastings Streets – it was moved to the western end of the building and this was in part to help to enliven the laneways. So this is the same area we were just looking at on the previous plans; this is Heretaunga Street; the laneway running in a north-south direction, and the laneway at the back; and the Opera House is down here. So this is what is now Craft and Social, the restaurant, so we did allow for that. And that was based on an open plan concept, again to maintain these visual and physical connections right through the space. And in the end that was how the fitout was actually designed – this isn’t the final layout but it was generally how it was designed. The decision was also made to move the iSite from Westermans Buildings into the ground floor of the Municipal, so that actually is in these two spaces here; this wall wasn’t constructed, they took both of these tenancies. There was another space for a small art gallery which was formerly Akina, which is sadly no longer there. And then at the back is the Huata Room which is a flexible space for various arts and cultural activities.  I haven’t really touched on where the lift went, but this is the main entrance foyer. The lift was in here and we relocated it to the back and there were some new toilets put in that area also.

So following the completion of the strengthening work and nearly two years on from when we first started, it was finally time for the architectural fitout and finishing work to begin. It was a case of putting back together a building that had largely been dismantled. We were closely involved with the work as it progressed onsite, and we liaised with all the contractors and users and also other designers.

This is the main entrance stair and the top of the main entrance there from Heretaunga Street, after that floor had been removed and the new decorative oval ceiling had been installed; this is where the windows started to go into the south elevation of the Assembly Hall … windows and doors; new shop fronts going in along Heretaunga Street; the opening up of the main entrance in through Heretaunga Street at the ground level. So once the lift had been removed, new doors going in and that opening being formed so you could actually finally see right through that space. The laneway again under construction, and also at the upper level there were two small office spaces which we opened up to turn into a larger conference space, now used by Toitoi.

A significant challenge with the upgrade of a heritage building is designing in modern services and facilities. The size and volume of existing spaces is often restrictive; usually it’s also impractical to achieve full compliance with current building code requirements. The most challenging areas were the new kitchens, bars, toilets and the new lift. Various ideas for catering the facility were investigated; in the end it was decided that a large on-site commercial kitchen was needed on the upper level to serve the Assembly Hall and Shakespeare Room. This involved opening up a number of smaller office spaces to fit the large kitchen in. So that’s the space here, the new kitchen. We had to take out a few walls between adjoining spaces to fit the kitchen in. The toilets were a big challenge, trying to fit those in to quite confined spaces. These are the bathrooms behind the Assembly Hall; just trying to maximise the number of toilets. We didn’t fully meet building code requirements but there is provision within the Building Act to meet it as close as possible. This is a new bar … the back of the bar … that went into the Assembly Hall; just making those fit in and designing them to tie in with the architecture of the space.

For accessibility, safety and fire egress reasons a significant amount of work was needed to alter and adapt existing stairs, handrails and balustrades. In one instance an existing stair had to be widened to maintain a critical fire escape path. All of this work had to be carefully designed in detail to tie in with existing heritage features. It was important for these changes to be sort of largely invisible. So this is the new balustrade; once the lift was removed we obviously needed a new balustrade to protect that void, so you can see we’ve designed it to tie in with the, you know, semi-circular sort of decorative ideas relating to things like the fanlights and other semi-circular elements within the building. We had to add new handrails to the main stair to make it achieve compliance, and also extend the handrails along the main balcony along Heretaunga Street. This is the stair from Hastings Street which we had to widen by probably about 200mm to maintain the width of it for a fire escape. The amount of work and engineering that had to go into that 250mm was incredible; and also some skilled carpentry work.

The design and location of service routes through the building was complex. Space for new service ducts and equipment was limited, and routes were made complicated by building structure. Services in the end were designed to be hidden, and to tie in with existing building features.

So this is actually now Toitoi’s main office on the ground floor on Hastings Street. There was some air conditioning equipment that needed to go into this space so we designed this wall console to tie in with existing decorative features of that space. There were a number of decorative pilasters that ran around the perimeter of that space – they were actually removed along this wall because a new concrete strengthening wall had to be formed along that wall, so we recreated those in timber work and painted them to tie in so they look as original.

Yeah, just the number of service ducts that we had to form throughout the building – a number of those had to be formed on the mezzanine floor in the Assembly Hall. And really, that was one of the few spaces we could actually get duct work in to transfer duct work from ground floor spaces through to the roof and roof plant. So we tried to design them to fit in with the existing space and disappear as much as possible. We did things like radiusing the corners of those ducts, just to help soften them and make them feel a little less awkward in the space.

So as the project progressed it was remarkable to see the original visions and ideas come to fruition, and it was heart warming to see the building being put back together and to take shape. One of the most dramatic improvements was opening up the main entrance lobby and stair. So this image is of the stair on completion, so you can really see the double height space really being returned, and that sense of grandeur of the staircase being returned to that space. And then also the opening up right through that space through to the rear laneway, which provides a really good connection now to the Opera House at street level.

This is actually a photo of that ceiling up here whilst it was under construction, and you can see here the original floor level which actually cut through the original arched windows. There were actually two windows which were not original built into this wall for that room in the seventies, and the top of this arched window had actually been closed in … concreted in. So we’d always intended to replace it but we thought we were going to have to replace it with a new one, but contractor started dismantling and discovered that the original doors and windows were still there, and we were able to salvage them and reuse them. The improvement of light quality in the Assembly Hall created by reinstating the windows was profound. The space was further enhanced by the work to reinstate and refinish the beautiful timber floors. I think this just speaks for itself really, this photograph – you can just see the light quality of having the light coming from both sides of the space has made a huge difference.

Replacing the original shop fronts has also made the building more accessible and inviting at the street. Yeah, we are really pleased with the way the shop fronts came up; the tiling work’s really beautiful, but having all the entrances put back really has made the building more inviting and more accessible for the public.

These are just some images of the light well once it was completed; so as well as allowing light to permeate adjoining spaces the new windows and doors have created better visual connections between different spaces in particular between the two main stairs. Some of the new work in here … like, this is a new window for example which provides light into a corridor space which was previously long and dark; and also into a new foyer space for new toilets at that level. These windows were original sorry, the toilets were actually built half way through this space, so we removed those – they completely blocked out light into that main stair. So having that removed and having a glazed roof that we incorporated to provide weather protection in the space obviously allowed more light back into the main stair. We also added in doors at the ground floor level into an adjoining tenancy, which is these doors here which are actually the back of the wine bar; so that allows light obviously to the back of the wine bar space but also allows the wine bar to spill out into the light well which is a lovely courtyard space for them. This is a photo of the entrance from Hastings Street … the Hastings Street stair. You can probably just see there, there was a new window that we added which backs onto the light well, which allows light to flood that stair, and also new glazed doors at ground floor which just allows light into the space. Previously it was walled off, so there was no light into those spaces.

The laneway was an area of significant change; what was formally a dark and very grungy service area is now unrecognisable. It’s an engaging public space that connects the site with its urban surroundings. It features reinstated façades, new windows and doors, new Juliet balconies and a roof canopy that provides cover for outdoor seating areas. Again, I think these speak for themselves really … completely unrecognisable. But you can see in this image here the reinstatement of that southern façade of the Assembly Hall – all the windows and doors put back and we also added in little Juliette balconies, which … nice little moments overlooking the laneway.

The final piece in the puzzle was the selection of materials, finishes and colours. Investigation of original colours used in the building helped to inform decisions about the colour scheme. New tiling was carefully set out to original patterns to the shop fronts and the entrances, so again the green tiles to the shop fronts – they’re all new. There were green tiles there when we first started, the original green tiles – they’d been painted over. Unfortunately they weren’t able to be salvaged but we did manage to find the tiles to match them. And likewise, the mosaic tiling to all of the entrances – we weren’t able to salvage those, just due to the extensive foundation works that was required, but we sourced new tiles to match them and they’re all set out to match the original patterns.

This space is at the top of the Hastings Street stair, and actually it’s just one of my favourite spaces in the building. It’s just lovely; an elegant space with a beautiful ceilings, and the new light colour scheme has just helped improve the light quality in that space along with the removal of some pretty awful things that were in there, like an enormous switch board which we had to fight to actually relocate, believe it or not, to another part of the building. But we managed to win that battle.

And this is that office space which we enlarged on the corner of Hastings and Heretaunga Street, which is Toitoi’s conference space, and that’s actually a really lovely warm, sunny space, particularly in the mornings. The approach was to keep the colour scheme light and natural. We wanted the play of natural light to enhance and highlight the building’s beautiful interior spaces and decorative features.

This is the Shakespeare Room. By design there wasn’t a lot of disruption caused to this space through the strengthening works, and that was deliberate; we didn’t want to have to impact any of the decoration in that space and have to replace it or lose any of it, so it was important that we did maintain that. So really it was redecoration of this space in the new colour scheme, so that sort of ochre colour on the walls was based on investigation that we did from within the building, where we’d found that that’d been used. There was also a description that we’d found of some of the colours in the building, which was fortunate. There were some repairs required to this space to the ceiling; some of the original lath and plaster were defective so they had to be repaired, and also some minor repairs to the glazing.

Originally things like the base of the panelling along the these walls had been painted in a dark brown colour to emulate timber, to tie in with the timber doors, but just repainting those back, as I think was original, in a light white colour has improved that space significantly. So after eight years of being closed the Municipal was finally reopened in August 2022, so after years of being left in darkness the light and life of the community did actually finally return.

I’d just like to finish by saying that projects of this importance and significance don’t come along all that often, and on behalf of my brother Anthony Matthews and his wife Jane Matthews who were instrumental in this project, we’d just like to say that we’re very proud and honoured to be involved in a project that’s been so wonderful for Hastings. In the four years of living and breathing the project at times it did actually feel like my own personal treasure but I was happy to hand it over in the end. Thank you for listening; I hope the talk was both enjoyable and informative. Thank you.

[Applause]

Thank you very much, Justin. I’ve been lucky enough to attend quite a few functions and meetings in the building, [background noises] and it’s really delightful to be in. As I mentioned earlier, Matthews and Matthews were the recipient of the Supreme Award for the Landmarks Trust. My enthusiasm for your [company] getting the award was based on the appearance of the building and how fantastic and well finished it was and I have to admit I had no idea of the complexity of what you went through or had to achieve to get that finished result, which I think’s fantastic. So I’m sure there are some questions … we’ve got a few more minutes before they throw us out. Well I’ve got one – where did you access all those heritage photographs from?

Justin: A lot from the Knowledge Bank; and also from the National Library and also we looked through the conservation plan that was done for the building; various places. The Knowledge Bank was fantastic because there were a few that I hadn’t seen until recently.

Question: What’s the heating?

Justin: The heating throughout the building is a mechanical ventilation and heating system, so it is this huge plant up on the roof to provide mechanical ventilation and heating throughout the building. So it’s all ducted; there are some smaller units in some of the spaces that we couldn’t get ducting to, but that’s how it’s heated.

Question: Did you have any asbestos problems?

Justin: Oh, yes, there was some. Along the balconies the tiling had been laid using an asbestos based adhesive, so that area had to get closed off while that was dealt with; but apart from that, not a lot.

Question: I’d like to know if you used your own tradesmen and wonderfully gifted people? Do you take them with you from job to job? Or, and I’m hoping this is the case, there are local tradesmen who now have so much experience and skill open to them, which they will carry on and hopefully reuse in other projects here or elsewhere.

Justin: We didn’t on this particular project so much; I mean, the background to this project is … I’m from Hawke’s Bay originally, but we’d actually moved back here only about seven years ago. So we were new to the area in some respects, but we have done on other projects we’re involved with; for example we have an expert in timber finishing, so someone we try to use all the time. And there’s also a plasterer that we use that could recreate decorative details [cough] – we’re actually involved in a project in Auckland where he was extensively used; but not so much on this project. In terms of local craftsmen … look, Gemco themselves, who did this project, were absolutely fabulous to deal with, and they had their own joinery and carpentry and they were great in that sense.

Question: Glazing … I mean, you had to do a lot of reglazing; obviously you couldn’t double glaze the windows. Did you use glass that has particular features …

Justin: Thermal. Yeah …

… either thermal features or for that matter, sound proofing features …

Justin: The short answer is no, not really; we just put back modern glass glazing, laminated toughened glass glazing for safety reasongs. But for acoustic and thermal there wasn’t really any requirements … you know, we weren’t required to upgrade the building to modern standards in that sense. We would’ve liked to’ve, but there was obviously budget cost restraints around that, too. But also just … double glazing’s not an option.

Question: On completion of it – which is fabulous – going on into the future do you have any part in overseeing any of the maintenance?

Justin: Not long term – we have a short term involvement while the building’s still … it’s out of that now, but it goes through what’s called a Defects Liability Period, so for a period of twelve months after completion. We carry out an inspection on completion, and then any defects have to be repaired in that time. Although the client does come to us from time to time asking, you know, if there is areas that we can help with.

Question: Can I just ask what the current NBS of the building is please?

Justin: Ooh, you’re testing my knowledge. I know that it was aimed for seventy-five percent; but I’m not sure, I think it was higher than that that was actually achieved in the end. Yeah.

Question: Justin, is the New Zealand Architects Index going to be built up after experiences with all the earthquakes when it comes to buildings?

Justin: I don’t know the answer to that, I’m afraid … sorry.

Comment: I’m just thinking there must be so much out of Christchurch.

Justin: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Comment: I was a bit surprised the buildings were built during the first world war … that be right?

Justin: Yeah. Yes it was, yes.

Question: So men who would otherwise be away fighting … perhaps they were older people?

Justin: Yes, possibly. Provided some industry, obviously. All good.

All right – thank you very much, been fantastic.

Justin: My pleasure, thank you. Thanks a lot.

[Applause]