Hall Repair Cost High

C6 MAINLANDER Saturday, December 8, 2012 THE PRESS, Christchurch With the future of Christchurch’s landmark town hall still in doubt, PHILIP MATTHEWS looks back at its history. t could all have been so much stranger. A UFO hovering above Kilmore St? Curling modernist Hall repair towers and waterfalls? Christchurch Town Hall Ihas always been big news. The cost high building was on the front page of The Press six years before it even Christchurch’s Town Hall existed. cost $4 million to build and it On February 8, 1966, the paper will cost an estimated $127.5m reported that 58 entries had been to repair after the earth- received for a Christchurch Town quakes. Hall design competition. The The city council has chairman of the Town Hall committed to keeping the Committee, future mayor Hamish town hall and was moving Hay, told a reporter that 58 was ahead with plans to do so. possibly a record. However, Earthquake Thirty-five entries came from Recovery Minister Gerry North Island architects, 18 from Brownlee has not ruled out the South Island and five from stopping that. He said his New Zealand architects living understanding was that the abroad. building and the land it sits Four months later, the paper on are in a very bad state. had further news: a design from A full assessment of the the young Christchurch firm of town hall was needed, but Warren and Mahoney was the council staff remained winner, and an awkward photo of confident it could be fixed for the two men ran on the front page. $127.5m. Wellington architect Ron Up it goes: In 1969 the city’s new town hall was slowly rising from the ground. The image is eerily similar to the deconstruction scenes around the inner city today. Photo: PRESS ARCHIVES Muston was professional adviser to the assessors. He said that Warren and Mahoney’s design The Christchurch public got to veteran architect could identify would bear comparison with the see what that meant when all 58 him or her). Perhaps that’s just as best overseas civic buildings. He displays went on show at the well as ‘‘Flagpole’’ found the predicted it would be ‘‘an Durham Street Art Gallery. A Warren and Mahoney plan less architectural work of the highest Press reporter described some of adventurous than other designs, order’’. the more fanciful entries: ‘‘A sleek with a skyline that was ‘‘much in Besides Muston and Hamish flying saucer hovering on squat conformity with the familiar one Architecture up with Hay, the assessors were Hamilton pillars, a curl of orange peel of urban Christchurch’’. architect Aubrey de Lisle, climbing 14 storeys over the Avon ‘‘However,’’ the anonymous Dunedin architect Ted McCoy and river, a beehive, an egg, and an writer continued, ‘‘it is good- commission and lifelong rivalry for themselves. But The Press did that when this building is finished New Zealand acoustics expert who Christchurch architect and former upended wedge.’’ mannered, decently reticent, clean followed. In fact, Beaven’s design run pictures of the four shortlisted you will have a building that is in became a key part of the project. city councillor George Griffiths. One Christchurch-designed cut and from good stock – very made the top 13 but not the top entries that lost to Warren and world class’’. Warren wrote in 2005 that Amazingly, a panel to judge civic entry incorporated an internal much as Christchurch itself would five. Mahoney’s design, including one Marshall was developing an architecture comprised four lake flowing over a waterfall. like to be.’’ But Beaven’s town hall is still by Christchurch architects Paul ne way to ensure that acoustic theory of lateral architects and just one politician. Another design was nicknamed Controversially, ‘‘Flagpole’’ seen as one of the city’s greatest Pascoe and Warren Linton. The the building would be reflections for auditoria. The town Between February and June ‘‘the railway smash’’ as large preferred the design by unbuilt buildings. Drawings were other three were by Porter and world class was to send hall became ‘‘his most successful 1966, the assessors reduced 58 buildings appeared to topple Christchurch architect Peter included in a 1991 exhibition, Martin, of Wellington, Ellison, the architect off to see guinea pig’’. entries to a longlist of 13 and a inwards ‘‘as if nudged heartily Beaven. It had ‘‘intimate court Unbuilt Christchurch, and the Acheson, Stewart and Associates, Othe world. The next time the Hamish Hay told his fellow further shortlist of five, before from both ends’’. enclosures’’, and was ‘‘a most catalogue noted that the assessors of Tauranga and Thorpe, Cutter, projected town hall appeared in councillors that the expense of picking a winner. Readers would have been successful formal complex having called Beaven’s design ‘‘one of the Pickmere, Douglas and Partners of The Press, Warren had just Warren’s trip was justified by the In a history of Warren and reassured that, far from being a recognisable Christchurch most adventurous and original’’ in Auckland. returned from a fact-finding tour information gathered and the Mahoney published in 2005, Sir radical, the Warren and Mahoney flavour’’. And where Warren and the competition. The catalogue But despite some championing of great venues: the Royal Festival improvements to and savings on Miles Warren recalled that in design was at the more Mahoney reiterated the urban spoke of ‘‘sweeping, sculptural roof of Beaven’s maverick design, Press Hall in London, the Rotterdam acoustics. contrast to ‘‘the lengthy project conservative end of the spectrum. skyline, Beaven’s roof design forms, asymmetrical massing and readers were reassured that the Concert Hall, the Concertgebouw That was in November 1966. At manager-dominated conditions of A review appeared in The Press, showed he had ‘‘his eyes on the organic relationship to the site’’ best entry won. Institute of in Amsterdam, the Berlin the end of September 1972, the later design competitions’’, the attributed to the pseudonym mountains’’. and called it ‘‘a romantic and Architects president E D Dawson Philharmonic Hall and the Lincoln town hall opened. Fanfare hardly town hall was a true design ‘‘Flagpole’’. The writer’s real An urban legend has grown highly personal response’’. told the paper that the reputation Centre for the Performing Arts in competition that gave architects identity has vanished from history that says Warren narrowly beat Readers would have had to of Warren and Mahoney was such New York. He stopped off in Perth, free rein. (neither a former editor nor a Beaven for the town hall head down to Durham St to judge that ‘‘you can safely be assured where he met Harold Marshall, a ❯❯ To C7 .

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