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Warren & Mahoney in 1 Biography

In a 1966 article on Warren & Mahoney’s work in the British journal Architectural Design, Norman F. was born in Sheppard wrote of Christchurch: “This city, the most conservative in a fairly conservative country, has Christchurch in 1929. After in its recent public and domestic buildings shown a direction which, if pursued and developed should working for Cecil Wood and make it a concrete example of what current planning and design theories propound.” This direction was several other Christchurch vigorously pursued, and the flowering of architectural invention in Christchurch in the 1960s became architects, Warren studied a high point in the history of architecture. The “Christchurch School” involved a host of architecture at the University architects - , Don Donnithorne, Charles Thomas, and Trengrove & Marshall were key figures, of Auckland, eventually but the scene was dominated by Warren & Mahoney. working at the London County Council where he Miles Warren carried the seeds of W&M’s phenomenal growth back to his home town in 1954, returning was exposed to British “New from Britain with the ideas then percolating around the avant-garde “New Brutalist” movement. Joining Brutalism”. forces with Maurice Mahoney, the pair found a point of intersection between the concern for truth-to- Maurice Mahoney was materials and structural expression that characterized Brutalism, and the low-key, Kiwi-fied commitment born in Christchurch, and to “straightforwardness” that obsessed many young architects here in NZ. Side-stepping the lightweight, like Warren trained at the rationalized wooden structures that dominated the thinking of the Group, W&M developed a tectonic and Canterbury Arch. Assn’s material vocabulary that derived from New Brutalism but reflected the more solid architectural heritage of Atelier. Mahoney, after the Christchurch context. This vocabulary appeared seemingly fully-formed in Warren’s first building: the working in a number of Dorset Street Flats. The astonishing skill behind W&M’s early work is demonstrated in the effortlessness Christchurch firms, joined with which they could adapt this domestic vocabulary to different building types – the perpendicular with Warren to take over the volume of the Christchurch College chapel and the spreading landscape of the Crematorium are each practice of G. T. Lucas, with only one step removed from Dorset Street. With the addition of pre-cast concrete and more adventurous the firm of Warren & Mahoney roof structures to the palette, W&M were able to create much more complex buildings, such as the being established in 1958 for Canterbury Student Union and . the Dental School project. W&M became a remarkable success story. They rode the wave of the post-war economic boom and The practice achieved quickly stepped up to large scale work. Winning the high-profile competition for the Christchurch Town remarkably rapid success, Hall in 1966 cemented their position among NZ’s premier firms. In the same year – less than a decade quickly moving up in the after the firm was established – W&M also won the American Institute of Architects’ Pan Pacific Citation, an scale and complexity of their projects and earning four award also given to such luminaries as Kenzo Tange and Harry Seidler. By the time the Town Hall opened NZIA Gold Medals between in 1973, much of W&M’s work was high-rise commercial buildings for developer clients. These changing 1959 and 1973. Warren briefs and the sense that Modernism was exhausted led W&M to shed their earlier approach and explore received a CBE in 1974, a the postmodernist language that was rising in Europe and America, a shift that paralleled that of many of knighthood in 1986, and in Warren’s international contemporaries, including fellow former Brutalists such as James Stirling. 1995 was made one of the 20 Through the 1980s, W&M’s early work was regarded with some unease, critics suggesting that the living members of the Order Christchurch Town Hall was the moment the firm really found its feet. With Kiwi architects now eagerly of NZ. He received the NZIA reworking mid-century modernism, W&M’s early work is again revered, and it is now the firm’s post- Gold Medal in 2000. modern work that tends to be passed over in silence: even the recent New Territories monograph, Mahoney retired in 1992 and assembled by W&M itself, includes key projects from the 1960s and early-70s but almost nothing from the Warren (officially at least) in 1980s. It may be another decade before the merits of this later work are again recognised. Andrew Barrie 1994. 1 1956-57 2 1958-59 3 1960 4 1960-61

Dorset Street Flats Dental Nurses Training School Carlton Mill Road Flats M. B. Warren House 2-12 Dorset Street, City 888 Colombo Street, City 64 Carlton Mill Road, City 9 Queens Ave, Fendalton

These eight flats were produced for three young Photo: Mannering & Associates bachelor owners (including ’s first Warren himself), each having official project, this complex one flat to occupy and the consists of two complete Following on from the Dorset Designed for Warren’s parents, others available to rent. children’s dental clinics, an Street project, W&M produced this house is the best known Designed before W&M was administration block, and a number of blocks of flats of a series of projects later officially established, it employs a block of classrooms. The along similar lines. Flats in dubbed the “pixie” houses. the ideas he brought back from project set the pattern for the these low-rise structures were Picking up on both historical Britain. The result is a simple firm’s early public buildings all constructed in the same cottage patterns and then but elegant composition of – clearly articulated planning, vocabulary of load-bearing contemporary Danish models, concrete block, in-situ RC floor extensive use of concrete concrete block and exposed in- these houses were composed structures, full-height openings block, shallow and flat roofs situ concrete. They were made of crisp boxes of concrete and low-pitched timber-framed detailed with no eaves to create eminently livable by recessed block, with punched openings roofs. The first conscious use prismatic volumes. However, balconies and north-facing, and no eaves or verges on of concrete block and fairface expressed steel portals and lushly-planted private gardens their gabled roofs. At the M.B. concrete inside a NZ house, very large windows give enclosed with concrete block Warren House, each main the building was dubbed “Fort the project a lightness and walls. See Home & Building room is surmounted by a Dorset” by scandalized locals. delicacy that stands in contrast June 1961. steeply-pitched wooden roof See Home & Building Jan.1959 to W&M’s later, more solid Other housing blocks include – this breaking down of the and Sept. 1959, and Arch. work. The project received the R. Hysop Flats (1960-61) house into small volumes, each Design Dec. 1961. an NZIA Gold Medal in 1959. at 324 Oxford Terrace, the J.J. with its own roof, was later Take a look at W&M’s 1973 The complex is now a private Connor Flats (1960-61) on extended by and Dorset Towers – two mid-rise academy. Papanui Road, and the B.A. (creating what apartment towers – next door at See Home & Blg. June 1960 Broderick Townhouses (1962- came to be described as the 110 Park Terrace. and Arch. Review Feb. 1961. 64) at 40 Rhodes Street. “noddy” houses).

5 1960-61 6 1962-89 7 1962-63 8 1962-64 Chapman Block Harewood Memorial Christ’s College Architect’s Office & Flat Gardens & Crematorium Christchurch Wool Exchange Rolleston Avenue, City 65 Cambridge Street, City 109 Johns Roads, Harewood 7 Whiteleigh Avenue, Riccarton

Built to house both the W&M office and Miles Warren’s flat, Located on a large flat site Described by Warren as the building was gradually in a semi-industrial area, New Zealand’s first Brutalist extended as W&M grew, with the project’s key element is Located adjacent to the building, this is a four- Miles’ flat being displaced first a large rectangular garden showgrounds, this building storey stack of laboratories, onto the roof, and then into the enclosed on three sides by was designed as a venue for classrooms and support garden at the rear. The building concrete block walls. The wool auctions, sales taking spaces. Squeezed between two became hub for a series of glass-walled chapel sits within place on only 10 days a year. existing structures, the building W&M projects on adjacent this enclosed space, and the The main building employs makes a number of gestures sites, including the Robin crematorium functions are a square plan organized to its context – the side walls Smith Photography Studio at discretely accommodated almost symmetrically around a are finished in brick veneer, 59 Cambridge Terrace (1970). “beyond” the far wall. The diagonal axis. The auctioneer’s and the arrangement of precast In 2006 Warren generously bold butterfly roof of the podium stands at the origin elements on the main façades gifted the building, now chapel and canopy float over of this axis, and arranged reflect the scale, rhythm, and occupied design-related firms this composition of walls, this around this is a steeply-raked colors of Cecil Wood’s adjacent including Athfield Architects, seemingly simple composition auditorium. Above, a large Big School. to a trust established to fund producing a surprisingly rich skylight has been inserted into W&M designed other buildings architectural education. The sequence of spaces. The the auditorium’s sloping roof, on the College campus: the Big building received an NZIA original entry canopy has now and a series of buyers offices School Library (1971), a sports Silver Medal in 1969, an NZIA been enclosed and a new entry cunningly arranged around its hall and science block (1976- National Award in 1980, and an added. The complex received periphery beneath the rake of 77), the adjacent Wigram Park NZIA 25 Year Award in 1995. an NZIA Gold Medal in 1964, its seating. The building is now complex of terrace houses at 1 See Home & Bldg June 1969 and a 25 Year Award in 1990. used by a Chinese church, but Park Terrace (1983-85), and an and 5/1980, as well as NZIA See NZIA Journal March 1964, is still in remarkably original administration block (1988). Journal Jan. 1969 and Arch NZ Home & Building Aug. 1964 condition. See NZIA Journal Aug 1962. May/June 1995. and Blg. Progress April 1965. See NZIA Journal Mar. 1964. 9 1964-70 10 1964-73 11 1966-69 12 1968-1970 Christchurch College 100 Waimairi Road, Ilam Students’ Union SIMU Office Building St Augustine’s Church 90 Ilam Road, Ilam 29 Latimer Square, City 3-5 Cracroft Terrace, Cashmere

Loosely adapting Oxbridge models, three-storey stacks of bedroom-studies, dining and common rooms, a chapel, and a library have been tightly grouped around a grassed quadrangle. The buildings employ a vocabulary Functionally the most Now occupied by AMI, the developed from the relatively complex building W&M had SIMU Building was the first modest Dorset Street Flats yet undertaken, this building of a series of medium-rise St Augustine’s original gothic – in-situ concrete, load- is characterized by a highly office buildings W&M built building dates from 1908, and bearing concrete block, and sophisticated concrete around the city in the 1960s. had a shingled spire added timber. Here, however, they structure with expressed joints These buildings were similar in in 1914. The building was have been elevated into a and junctions. Extensive use many ways – based on similar renovated and substantially masterful composition that was made of precast concrete client requirements, they all enlarged by W&M, adding a is undoubtedly one of NZ - columns, beams, and employed similar structural square building that encloses architecture’s finest ever exposed aggregate panels – a and architectural techniques: a spacious sanctuary and buildings. The project was material that became a feature stiff service cores to resist seating area. The most awarded an NZIA Gold of W&M’s later buildings. earthquake loads, and boldly remarkable aspect of the Medal in 1969, and a 25 Year A substantial addition was modeled façades assembled project is the seamlessness of Award in 1999. The College’s completed in the early 1970, from precast concrete units. the transition between W&M’s astonishing collection of NZ when W&M also completed Other early office buildings Brutalist vocabulary and the art makes a visit all the more students’ union complexes include the CFM Office Building existing gothic building – it worthwhile. for Auckland and Massey (1969) at 199-200 Cashel demonstrates very clearly the See Home & Bldg July 1969, as Universities. Street and the CMLA Building way in which W&M’s early work well as the NZIA Journal Dec. See NZIA Journal Nov. 1968 (now the Mainstay Hotel) at 66 was aggressively modern and 1968 and June 1969, and Arch and Home & Building Nov. Cathedral Square (1977). yet took very strong cues from NZ May/June 1999. 1973. See NZIA Journal Sept. 1972. local architectural heritage.

13 1966-72 Other Addresses: Elsewhere: Sources: Hays Store and Supermarket British Secondary School The photographs are by Christchurch Town Hall Cnr Riccarton Rd & Hansens Malapoa Estates, Port Vila, Andrew Barrie and the drawing 100 Kilmore Street, City Lane, Riccarton (1960) Vanuatu (1964-66) is courtesy of W&M. Many This suburban department Now called Malapoa College, thanks to Sir Miles Warren for store and supermarket, one of this school was the first in a his generous help in preparing the first in Christchurch, was series of W&M projects in the this itinerary. demolished in 1993 to make South Pacific. Others include way for a bigger box. the British Hospital in Port Vila The best sources on W&M’s See NZIA Journal May 1961. (1970-76) and Government early work are the two excellent House in Honiara, Solomon books published on the firm: J. Ballantyne & Co. Store Cnr Cashel & Colombo Sts., Islands (1965-68). Warren & Mahoney Architects City (1963) See Blg. Progress Dec 1966. 1958-1989 (Christchurch; W&M, 1989) and New Territory Christchurch Club (1965) Univ. of Auckland Students’ – Warren and Mahoney 154 Worcester Street, City Union (1965-73) - 50 Years of New Zealand W&M won this project in a Mountfort’s only Neoclassical Princes Street, Auckland Architecture (Auckland; high profile and somewhat building, this building became The project was built in a Balasoglou Books, 2005). controversial open two-stage one of Christchurch’s first number of stages, the cafeteria The firm’s early work was very national competition – it has conservation and restoration being extended and the extensively featured in the local been described as the key projects. Maidment Theatre added in periodicals of the day, and was architectural commission of the early 1970s. W&M added often included in high-profile its decade. The completed M. E. Mahoney House (1966) the adjacent Kate Edgar overseas journals - see “The building was remarkably similar 8 Pentlow Place, Fendalton Information Commons in 2003. Work of Warren & Mahoney, to the competition scheme, Maurice Mahoney’s house, New Zealand” in Architectural and went on to receive an which he still occupies. Massey University Students’ Design August 1966. NZIA Gold Medal in 1973. Union (1967-68) There is an informative The citation read: “This is an Northlands Shopping Ctr University Ave., Palmerston interview with Warren in Home impressive building that has 55 Main North Rd., Papanui North & Building Oct./Nov. 1983 in been designed with great This was at the time (1967) the Only part of W&M’s scheme which he speaks extensively competence. It is consistent biggest shopping center in the was built. about W&M’s development. throughout, from the well South Island – redeveloped in See also Warren’s interesting organized planning to the 2004. See NZIA Journal April 1967. coordination of the structural See Blg. Progress Dec/Jan ‘67. text on the role of the architect elements. The multi-functioning Travelodge Hotel (1970-75) (Home & Building April 1973), building works well and has Beach Street, Queenstown and his often-quoted essay on acoustic excellence with good Now the Crowne Plaza Hotel. “Style in NZ Architecture” (NZ spatial qualities and a fine Arch. 3/78). Ian Lochhead’s relationship to its site.” New Zealand Chancery review of the 1994 W&M See Home & Blg. May 1973 37 Observatory Circle, retrospective exhibition covers and NZIA Journal Oct. 1966, Washington D.C. (1974-79) the development of the firm Concrete Const. Dec. 1973, See Home & Building No. 5 from its early days (Arch NZ and NZ Local Govt. Aug. 1966. CMLA Building (1977) 1979. Nov/Dec 1994).