Newspaper Article 2014 – Lift’s life of ups and downs clanks to halt after 80 years

Lift’s life of ups and downs clanks to halt after 80 years

By Patrick O’Sullivan
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One of New Zealand’s oldest operating elevators was decommissioned in Hastings this week.

The elevator in the four-storey IMS Building in Queen St, which had been in use since the 1930s, was removed as part of a restoration programme.

The building survived the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake and is listed with the Historic Places Trust as an important example of the Stripped Classical style of architecture, marking the transition between the classicism of the early 20th century and modernism which took firm hold in New Zealand in the 1950s. Designed by architect Edmund Anscombe, it featured a “floating foundation” which allowed it to sway with earthquakes.

IMS Payroll managing director Kevin Atkinson has been a tenant in the building since the 1980s and recalls attending weddings and other parties in the then Hawke’s Bay Farmers Co-Operative Association building.

“The building was very popular for events in its heyday,” he said.

“It’s just unfortunate for safety precautions that the lift can no longer be used. It was always very nostalgic to walk into the building and push the vintage scissor gate open.”

Photo caption – LAST LIFT-OFF: Kevin Atkinson, IMS Payroll managing director, will miss the scissors-lift nostalgia.
PHOTO/SUPPLIED