Plans to restore this cultural heritage building

was built in 1942. It is an important heritage building, being a rare example of a building dating from World War II, and an important design by architect Edmund Anscombe.

Supported acquisition and proposed a restoration of a rare Heritage Building

Heritage Building: Return Servicemen’s League, Mount Victoria, Wellington Key Client(s): Kapiti Coast Health. Developer: Dan Tremewan. Architects: Tse Architects. Urban Planners: Urban Perspectives. Project Team: In-house Contractors. The Brief: Dan’s challenge of this project was to make the best use of the site while retaining the significant, unique historical and cultural heritage features of the building. Project Realisation: The predominant characteristics of the surrounding area were commercial and residential with some light industry so redevelopment required a mixed-use approach with commercial on ground floor and residential apartment living above with adequate separation between the two activities. My investigation of the importance of the site lead me to a researcher who had made the building the subject of her PHD which, through a collaborative approach that I negotiated, provided a vast amount of data and direction for the project, especially regarding which significant features that should be highlighted in the successful stage one redevelopment overseen by me the prior sale of the site.

Our initial involvement with this large footprint, two-storey 1940s concrete and timber framed building involved carrying out a Detailed Seismic Assessment. The assessment identified that while earthquake-prone (<33% NBS), the building had “good bones” and the seismic capacity could be relatively easily enhanced to move the building from earthquake-prone to close to 100% NBS. The strengthening would have involved Gib and plywood lined walls in office areas, steel frames in larger open areas, strengthening of the diaphragm, and miscellaneous other detailing enhancements. The strengthening works were carried out as part of a refurbishment project. Silvester/Clark Consulting Engineers provided an elegant seismic strengthening solution that was incorporated as part of an architectural fit out won the 2015 New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering award for Best Adaptive Reuse and was also the Overall Winner at the Earthquake Strengthening Awards.

Location: Capital and Coast Health, Hania St, Wellington Central, 2006.

Project Area, Type and Proposal: 3715 sq m, Historical Mixed Use Land and Building Restoration ∙ Developers Role: Acquisition, Business Case (concept, best use feasibility, ROE, benchmarks…), Funding, Master Planning,  Project Manager (first stage of 6 existing apartments and 7 Carparks), Sales and Leasing.

Capital, Project and Transaction Values: $3,600,000 Capital Allocation $5,400,000 CBRE Project Valuation Jan 2007 and $19,800,000 Total Developer Transactions.

Key Tenants: Capital and Coast Health, Rendel Publishers, 

Heritage Building: Return Servicemen’s League, Mount Victoria, Wellington Key Client(s): Kapiti Coast Health. Developer: Dan Tremewan. Architects: Tse Architects. Urban Planners: Urban Perspectives. Project Team: In-house Contractors. The Brief: Dan’s challenge of this project was to make the best use of the site while retaining the significant, unique historical and cultural heritage features of the building. Project Realisation: The predominate characteristics of the surrounding area were commercial and residential with some light industry so redevelopment required a mixed use approach with commercial on ground floor and residential apartment living above with adequate separation between the two activities. My investigation of the importance of the site lead me to a researcher who had made the building the subject of her PHD which, through a collaborative approach that I negotiated, provided a vast amount of data and direction for the project, especially in regard to which significant features that should be highlighted in the successful stage one redevelopment overseen by me prior sale of the site.