Prison revives for visitor experience

### ODT Online Sat, 29 Apr 2017
Tourism intended for prison
By David Loughrey
Dunedin’s old prison has four new trustees, a new tenant with the tourism market in mind, and is ready to move to a new stage in its evolution. The 121-year-old Victorian-style courtyard facility designed by John Campbell has been returned to its original form. Work to replace decorative architectural elements removed from the front of the building was completed recently. Now the Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust is turning its attention to future uses for the former jail that is one of the city’s more unusual historic buildings. The prison was decommissioned in 2007, and the trust bought the property in 2012. Trust chairman Owen Graham said the physical restoration work was 95% complete — ridge tiles and two 2-metre finials still had to be finished — but it was time to start a new stage of evolution for the building. The new trustees had been appointed for their range of skills and backgrounds, and would help the trust make decisions about what happened next. Those decisions could range from another part-upgrade or “go for a multimillion-dollar effort”. […] Mr Graham said part of the trust’s strategy was to start occupying parts of the prison to sustain its activities and “bring the prison back to life with different activities”. It had been working with a business that wanted to use the prison’s kitchen, which had been identified as “serviceable”.
Read more

The former prison has a Heritage New Zealand category one classification; future development involves discussion with Dunedin City Council and Heritage New Zealand.

█ Dunedin Prison | http://www.dunedinprisontrust.co.nz/

[excerpt from the trust’s website]

Timeline
Showing the many phases of use of the prison:
1896-1915 – new prison opened with cells for 52 men and 20 women
1915-1959 – Police move in to administration block and look after prisoners as well as their own duties
1959-1974 – 34 female prisoners are accommodated, segregated from men
1975-1994 – reopened catering for 59 male inmates
1994-2000 – Police move out to their new premises and prison reverts to original purpose as a men only facility
2007 – prison decommissioned and Corrections operation moved to Milburn
2011 – Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust formed to secure the prison for the nation
2012 – Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust raises $50,000 to allow it to purchase the property from Ngai Tahu Property Ltd
2014 – Conservation Plan completed
2015 – Fund-raising begins to allow us to restore the facades and repair part of the slate roof, estimated at $500,000.

Related Posts and Comments:
17.9.15 Dunedin Prison: Community Trust grant for restoration
16.9.15 DPAG exhibition talk, Sun 20 Sep —Jonathan Howard on Dunedin 1865
7.9.15 Public petition to save Courthouse for courts use
30.8.15 DPAG exhibition | Dunedin 1865: A City Rises…
23.8.15 1865 Dunedin —Heritage Festival 2015 ‘The Open City’ … 29 Aug
23.8.15 1865 Dunedin —Heritage Festival 2015 Shoreline Trail launch
11.7.15 Dunedin Law Courts “an incredible historic building” –Minister
14.5.15 Russell Lund on Ministry closure of Dunedin Law Courts
14.5.15 Justice at Dunedin
2.5.15 Ministry serves INJUSTICE for Dunedin Courthouse #HistoricHeritage
28.2.13 Tour the old prison in March (2013)
20.9.12 Dunedin Prison
6.6.12 Dunedin Prison purchased by trust
18.10.11 Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust
5.10.11 Training, jobs, city regeneration

█ For more, enter the term *heritage* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

*Images: whatifdunedin sketchbook – Dunedin Prison (former)

Dunedin Prison: Community Trust grant for restoration

39 Dunedin Television Published on Sep 17, 2015
Historic prison restoration gets kickstart

● Resource consent granted for conservation and repair
● Funding from Otago Community Trust
● New visitor centre
● Prison tours
● Restaurant for courtyard

### dunedintv.co.nz Thu, 17 Sep 2015
Historic prison restoration gets kickstart
A $90,000 grant is kickstarting the project to restore Dunedin’s historic prison to its former glory. The money will enable the Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust to start exterior repairs. And that means members are finally able to turn their vision into reality.
Ch39 Link

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[click to enlarge]DCC Webmap – 2 Castle Street, former Dunedin Prison [Jan/Feb 2013]

█ Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust

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Related Posts and Comments:
16.9.15 DPAG exhibition talk, Sun 20 Sep —Jonathan Howard on Dunedin 1865
7.9.15 Public petition to save Courthouse for courts use
30.8.15 DPAG exhibition | Dunedin 1865: A City Rises…
23.8.15 1865 Dunedin —Heritage Festival 2015 ‘The Open City’ … 29 Aug
23.8.15 1865 Dunedin —Heritage Festival 2015 Shoreline Trail launch
11.7.15 Dunedin Law Courts “an incredible historic building” –Minister
14.5.15 Russell Lund on Ministry closure of Dunedin Law Courts
14.5.15 Justice at Dunedin
2.5.15 Ministry serves INJUSTICE for Dunedin Courthouse #HistoricHeritage
28.2.13 Tour the old prison in March (2013)
20.9.12 Dunedin Prison
6.6.12 Dunedin Prison purchased by trust
18.10.11 Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust

█ For more, enter the term *heritage* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

University of Otago landscaping

[NOT about Hyde street Keg Party and damage to an emergency response vehicle – the timing of this facelift announcement isn’t subtle]

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UNI NEWS via Otago Bulletin
Major landscaping project will enhance the Dunedin campus

Friday, 27 March 2015

Landscaping plans include “town square” outside Staff Club

From early April, university staff will start to see works underway as part of a landscaping project to give the grounds of the Dunedin campus a major facelift. But the benefits are promising to be very much worthwhile for both staff and students alike, with new paving, outdoor seats, trees, LED lighting, signage and improved shelter within a large area located between the northern end of the Richardson Building, and the intersection of Castle and Dundas Streets.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Harlene Hayne says the intention is to vastly improve access to known sunny, sheltered sitting areas for staff, students and visitors; to replace paving that has come to the end of its life with safer materials; and to create new outdoor sitting, walking and recreational areas to improve the visual linking between spaces on the campus.

The area outside the St David Café is the first in line for a facelift. The project will be underway from early next month, beginning with work on the St David Café courtyard.

The overall project is to include the replacement of old drainage with new drains in parts of the central campus, on behalf of the Dunedin City Council. Also, major works completed last year when the West bank of the Leith outside the Clocktower was lowered for flood protection purposes had resulted in a substantial visual change requiring further improvements.

Professor Hayne believes the enhancements are necessary and important, and they will further benefit what is already a stunning campus environment.

“We want to both maintain and enhance our well-known advantage as one of the world’s most beautiful campuses in which to work and study.”

“We want to both maintain and enhance our well-known advantage as one of the world’s most beautiful campuses in which to work and study. This is an exciting and innovative project that further capitalises on the potential here for greater outdoor utilisation of our beautiful, green areas, and spaces such as the north end of the Richardson building, where people have traditionally liked to sit because it is so sheltered and sunny. We will be using quality materials, timbers, and real blue-stone that blends in with our heritage buildings. We want this development to stand the test of time.”

Professor Hayne is mindful that this is a major task, and that there will be disruption to staff and students as work progresses. Information signs will be erected, and work will progress with as few interruptions and as little noise as possible. The University aims to have the project completed by the end of January 2016. Staff and students will receive regular updates as work patterns change via the Bulletin Board.

Highlights of the landscaping project include:

• The creation of an enclosed courtyard allowing for a more well-defined and better sheltered seating area outside St David café, with low bluestone walls.

• A new paved ‘town square’ outside the Staff Club in the area known as the Castle Walk. This will involve the relocation of some memorial trees, and the removal of others that arborists have said have come to the end of their natural life. An artwork (to be commissioned) will feature in the middle of this new square, as well as seating.

• A new entranceway and Oamaru stone University sign at the entrance to the University from Castle Street, near the Centre for Innovation, and also a new sign on top of blue-stone and caste iron fencing at the entrance to Castle Street from Dundas Street.

• Castle Street in the section housing Selwyn and the new University Childcare Centre, Te Pā, will be re-paved, with wider footpaths, and bike racks. The area will become more bike-friendly, with adjustments to parking spaces, and more trees. The street will be raised to be level with the footpath, with more trees added.

• The newly created concrete steps on the new embankment leading down to the Leith Stream opposite the Clocktower will have railings, and improved safety adjustments, while matured specimen trees will be added to increase shade and improve visual values.

• The tiled walkway over the Union St bridge will be re-paved in high-quality durable pavers, and there will be seismic strengthening underneath the bridge.

• Further extensive new landscaping with trees, seating and paving, as well as wider walkways and steps, will be installed in the area that runs east of the Union Street bridge, up past the Archway Lecture theatres, and around to the front of Allen Hall where Theatre Studies is housed.

• A community garden with fruit trees will be cultivated between the villas at the University end of Castle Street; and also rain gardens planted with native grasses added throughout the newly-developed area.

• In total, there will be about 15,000 square metres of paving replaced or re-laid.

• No changes are planned for the grass bank and historic mature trees directly in front of the Clocktower.

█ http://www.otago.ac.nz/otagobulletin/news/otago089520.html

More: The Campus Landscape

28.3.15 ODT: $8 million facelift for university
Next month, the University of Otago will embark on a 21-month multimillion-dollar landscaping project to transform Dunedin’s campus.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Law Courts Hotel #sad

An institution. Great precinct and location for accommodation, what happened.
Enhance building performance, perfect for retrofitting and adaptive reuse.

### dunedintv.co.nz February 19, 2015 – 5:42pm
Law Courts Hotel in liquidation
The Law Courts Hotel in central Dunedin has been placed in liquidation. The hotel’s situated in lower Stuart Street, beside the Dunedin Courthouse. It’s been placed in the hands of liquidators by the High Court. Creditors owed money by the company have until the end of March to file claims. The sole director of the Law Courts Hotel is Mornington resident Leslie Scott. A financial report on the state of the business has yet to be made public. It was formally placed in liquidation last week.
Ch39 Link [no video available]

█ Wikipedia: Law Courts Hotel [edited]
‘One of the city’s most historic public houses and hostelries, the Law Courts Hotel, is located close to the Dunedin Law Courts (the courthouse) in Lower Stuart Street, in a large corner building with an Art Deco style facade (not the original frontage), directly opposite the Allied Press Building (the offices of the city’s main newspaper, the Otago Daily Times). Listed by Heritage New Zealand as a Category II historic place (List No: 2189). The prime location of this hotel near these two premises has greatly contributed to its history, as has its longevity (having originally been founded as the Auld Scotland Hotel in 1863).’ Link

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: wikimedia.org – ‘deco-tweaked’ by whatifdunedin

University: Leith flood protection scheme and landscaping

Proposed landscaping within the university’s heritage precinct. The St David St footbridge will be extended. [graphic via ODT]

### ODT Online Wed, 24 Jul 2013
Registry stretch of Leith set for summer revamp
By Rebecca Fox
The stretch of the Water of Leith in front of the University of Otago’s registry building looks set to get a multimillion-dollar makeover this summer. Students, staff and visitors could soon be able to walk along grassy verges next to lowered banks of the river, from the St David St footbridge to the Union St bridge, if a design plan is approved at an Otago Regional Council committee meeting tomorrow.
It has been about seven years since the council and the university signed an agreement to work together to produce a plan to suit the council’s need for flood protection and the university’s need for an aesthetic look in front of its historic registry building.
The council had budgeted $5.4 million over the next 12 months for the work. The university and the council are each to fund half the cost of the aesthetic work.
Among the work to be endorsed by the committee is the lowering of most of the concrete wall on the east bank, extending the footbridge, cutting down the west bank and landscaping and footpath redevelopment.
Read more

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Related Posts and Comments:
27.5.13 Carisbrook and Leith flood protection
17.11.10 Leith Lindsay Flood Protection Scheme
17.5.10 Campus Master Plan
28.1.10 University of Otago Campus Master Plan

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin’s former Chief Post Office

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### ODT Online Sat, 22 Jun 2013
Post office conversion ready to go
By Hamish McNeilly
A multimillion-dollar project to transform the former Dunedin chief post office has been delivered. Work on converting the 10-storey heritage building into a 120-apartment hotel and office space for Silver Fern Farms and other commercial tenants could begin within weeks.

Building owner Geoff Thomson, of Distinction Hotels, told the Otago Daily Times: “I just love the building and it was just about trying to find a way to make it stack up.”

Arrow International would spearhead the fit-out of the office space and hotel and the construction of a multilevel car park at the rear of the building. The four-star plus Distinction Dunedin hotel project would cost more than $15 million, but those involved with the project declined to confirm a figure.
However, the anchor tenancy of Silver Fern Farms, which would occupy the first two floors, and unnamed commercial tenants the third floor, would help to “underpin the building”, Mr Thomson said.
The commercial floors would be fitted out by the end of the year. Construction of a three-storey car park on its Bond St car park at the rear of the building would also be done by then. Designs had yet to be finalised for the remaining seven floors of the hotel apartments.
Read more

[history and significance]
█ Heritage New Zealand (HNZ) registration report: List No. 2145 (Category II)

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Related Posts and Comments:
16.3.10 Public meeting: planning the future of Dunedin heritage buildings [updates on SFF]
2.7.12 Demolition by neglect. Townscape precincts.
6.12.11 Distinction Hotels: more work on former Chief Post Office
5.3.11 Former Chief Post Office, Dunedin – magazine feature . . .
14.8.10 No surprises with former CPO redevelopment
27.5.10 Distinction Dunedin: former chief post office
12.5.10 DScene – Geoff Thomson buys back former CPO
11.5.10 DCC Media Release – Chief Post Office
10.11.09 Dunedin public library services
23.10.09 Weekend ODT looks at The Exchange
3.9.09 Dunedin Public Library feasibility
26.8.09 DScene: Delta, STS, DCC larks
20.7.09 DCC + former CPO + others(??) = a public library (yeah right)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: (from top) topnews.net.nz – Dunedin Chief Post Office, 283 Princes Street, Dunedin; distinctionhotels.co.nz – thumbnail; rootsweb.ancestry.com – 1930s b/w

Tour the old prison in March (2013)

Guided Tours Available $10 per person

Saturday 2 March 10.30am
Tuesday 5 March 5.30pm
Saturday 9 March 10.30pm
Tuesday 12 March 5.30pm
Saturday 16 March 10.30am
Tuesday 19 March 10.30am
Saturday 23 March 10.30am
Tuesday 26 March 10.30am
Saturday 30 March 10.30am

• Tours are limited to 25 persons and last for 1 hour
• No lift access to upper floors, and not suitable for small children

To book and for other information visit www.dunedinprisontrust.co.nz

Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust
65 Every Street, Dunedin 9013, New Zealand
Tel: 64 3 454 5384 Fax: 64 3 454 5364
Stewart Harvey, Chairman
stewarth@orcon.net.nz

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Related Posts:
20.8.12 Dunedin Prison: tours next month
6.6.12 Dunedin Prison purchased by trust
18.10.11 Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust – see building history

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Empire Hotel, 396 Princes St, Dunedin

### ch9.co.nz December 8, 2011 – 6:22pm
Historic Empire
Established as the Queen’s Arms in 1858, the building now known as the Empire Hotel has been nominated as a Category 1 building with the Historic Places Trust. Category 1 is the highest listing a building can achieve, and has benefits especially for aging structures.
Video

NZHPT Nomination for Registration:
EmpireHotel.ashx (PDF, 1.38 MB)

Empire Hotel, 2008. Photo: Elizabeth Kerr

Distinction Hotels: more work on former Chief Post Office

Initial plans for the Distinction Dunedin included 180 rooms and suites, restaurants, bars, conference facilities, a business centre, gym, as well as a lap pool.

### ODT Online Tue, 6 Dec 2011
Steelwork spans new space
By Hamish McNeilly
As an airy new space is created with major engineering work at Dunedin’s former chief post office, the building’s developer is praising the city’s potential. Geoff Thomson, of Distinction Hotels, said contractors were yesterday putting in place steel beams over the top of a new conference centre area for the four-star redevelopment. The roof over the conference centre was likely to be completed by Christmas, after work to replace the main roof was completed earlier this year.
Read more

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Related Comments:
16.3.10 Public meeting: planning the future of Dunedin heritage buildings

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust

The Dunedin Prison, situated in an architecturally and historically important heritage precinct in Anzac Square, was first occupied in 1898 and is possibly Australasia’s only extant Victorian courtyard prison.

The Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust is in the process of raising funds for a feasibility study for the building, which was decommissioned in August 2007, after operating as a prison for more than a century.

Charities Services | Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust
Registration No: CC46118
Search the Charities Register

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Dunedin Prison (Former)
Corner 2 Castle Street and State Highway 1; Dunbar Street, Dunedin
Registration Number: 4035
Historic Place – Category I

A Dunedin gaol has stood on this central city site since 1855. First occupied by immigration barracks, these were converted into temporary prison accommodation in 1855. The land was vested in the city as a site for a public gaol in June 1858. It was not until 1861 that new gaol buildings were readied. Additional buildings were added over the following years as need outstripped accommodation. With the appointment of Arthur Hume (1838-41?-1918) to the position of Inspector of Prisons in 1880, a centralised system of penal administration began. He instituted a programme of new prison building, designed to implement the ‘English system’ of penal reform.

Plans for the new Dunedin Prison were completed in 1892 by John Campbell (1857-1942), Government Architect. Modelled on New Scotland Yard, the prison was designed in a Queen Anne style including cupola domes, dormers, striped brick and Oamaru stone elevations, and fine detailing. The layout consisted of four blocks surrounding a central courtyard. Construction was delayed as the Dunedin community felt the central site could be better utilised. Work finally began, however, in 1895. The exterior was finished by April 1897 and on 16 June 1898 the prison was occupied.

Due to staffing shortages during World War One, police staff were relocated from their neighbouring barracks into the prison’s administration block. In 1959 the accommodation was converted into a women’s prison. In 1974, it became a male remand and short sentence prison and remained so until 2007 when it was vacated.

█ Source: Heritage New Zealand – List No. 4035

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Hotel tower: developer “flashpoints” and the elusive mix of activities

### nzherald.co.nz 5:30 AM Saturday Oct 2, 2010
Is Auckland’s ‘urban village’ ideal straying off course?
By Geoff Cumming
How you see the restoration of a collection of century-old buildings on Auckland’s downtown waterfront is a matter of perspective. From one angle, the Britomart heritage precinct is the best thing to happen on the waterfront in a generation or three – cocking a snook at property hard-heads who argued that the 18 largely derelict buildings were beyond a bankable future. From another, it is a public-private partnership where the balance appears to be tilting towards the developer; where the promised “people-friendly” benefits of this urban revitalisation are crumbling.
The immediate flashpoint is the private plan change allowing the developers to build a high rise luxury hotel on the sailors’ home/Schooner Tavern site on Quay St. That decision has split architectural and urban design critics, some maintaining that new high rise can be successfully blended with low-rise heritage buildings. If so, it will be a first for Auckland.
Read more
(link via Richard Walls)

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### http://www.stuff.co.nz Last updated 05:00 02/10/2010
Demolition likely of four heritage sites
By Glenn Conway – The Press
The fate of six earthquake-damaged Christchurch heritage buildings will be decided by city councillors on Monday, with staff saying four are too expensive to repair.

Those under threat include Manchester Courts in Manchester St, the former Nurse Maude Association building in Madras St and two Sydenham retail properties in Colombo St.

Two others – the Ohinetahi property of architect Sir Miles Warren at Governors Bay and a former shoe-polish factory in Ferry Rd – have been recommended for full or partial restoration.

Detailed reports and heritage assessments on all six buildings will be debated at an extraordinary meeting of the council starting at 9.30am on Monday. It is expected to be the final meeting of the current council, with local body elections next Saturday.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Electioneering in the ghetto

Signs are springing up in the most unlikely places.

Take this one on Saturday morning, 11 September, in the front yard of the historic turret house at 4 Pitt Street, Dunedin North.

According to Dunedin City Council the ratepayer is Pamela Marguerite McKellar, of Syke House Farm Holmfirth West Yorkshire, England. Not sure who manages the property in the owner’s absence.

Not long ago, a New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) registration plaque was afixed to the gatepost at the entry to the property.

Dunedin City District Plan
25.1 Townscape and Heritage Buildings and Structures
Site Number: B427
Map: 35
Item: House
Address: 4 Pitt Street
Legal Description: Sec 75 Blk XXIV Town of Dunedin
NZHPT Registration Number: 5233
NZHPT Category: II
Protection Required & Comments: facades and bulk appearance to Pitt and George Streets, excluding the garage in front.

Dunedin City District Plan – Chapter 13 Townscape
13.6 Heritage Precincts
13.6.2 Royal Terrace/Pitt Street/Heriot Row Heritage Precinct (Precinct Description, pages 13:31 – 13:32)

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Cr Dave Cull chairs the DCC’s heritage buildings economic re-use steering committee. A fusty committee name at best but the committee is doing great work.

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Temporary though it is, a pity to see a hoarding in the heritage precinct.
Not a vote catcher. This could have been an essay in praise of natural backlighting.

[A further pity to see the new (permanent) buildings at 11 Pitt Street arrive by stealth (non notified application in the heritage precinct; no neighbouring long-term tenants consulted as affected parties by the developers) – who on earth would care about heritage values and amenity in a district plan protected heritage precinct… or privacy, density, car parking, noise, rubbish, shading, incomplete landscaping, a broken and subverted boundary fence, or… After all, what are “neighbours” to the Auckland property developers and their builder son wanting to cream it here on the back of affluent Chinese students. The “iceberg” isn’t pretty enough to photograph – but it’s right here too, in the heritage precinct. One more thing. Mayor Chin is the ratepayer for the Auckland developer couple’s current abode; and it was Mayor Chin that influenced the rushed consent without consultation of the affected parties. A much longer story not able to be published here.]

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Election signage
The District Plan describes the rules around signs on public or private property. If your sign does not comply with the restrictions, you will need to apply for resource consent.

Election Signage Policy 2010 (PDF, 1.4mb, open in new window)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Note: I haven’t decided who to vote for in the local body elections. Preferences will centre on a balance of issues as well as the best determination it’s possible to make on candidate leadership, experience, financial prowess and direction. Hard, isn’t it.

DCC Media Release – Contract let for Town Hall upgrade

DCC Media Release
Town Hall UpGrade – Contract Let, Work Due To Start

This item was published on 21 Jul 2010.

Jim Harland, DCC Chief Executive, has announced that the contract to upgrade the Dunedin Centre/Town Hall/ Municipal Chambers complex has been awarded to local company, Amalgamated Builders Limited (ABL).

There were three complying tenders – from ABL, Lund South and Naylor Love. ABL were awarded the contract at $35,660,000.

The contract is a fixed price contract and will include the re-development of the Glenroy Auditorium as an upgraded conference facility with associated break-out spaces in the Municipal Chambers building along with substantial functional and operational improvements, including fire egress, sprinklers and ventilation throughout the Dunedin Centre/Town Hall complex.

The upgrade also includes the installation of new data and theatre services.

Mr Harland said “This is good news for a local business and we are looking forward to working together with ABL on this important project. It’s vital that we have a contractor sympathetic to the needs of upgrading this complex in one of the city’s most important heritage precincts and our past experience of working with ABL gives us every confidence this will be the case. The upgrade is expected to meet the Council’s specific demands for the future use of the Town Hall, Dunedin Centre and Municipal Chambers for generations to come.”

Work is due to start in the next two weeks and is scheduled for completion by the end of 2012 with the expectation of providing up to 150 jobs.

ABL has most recently been the lead contractor on the Chinese Garden and is currently engaged on the Regent Theatre re-development.

There were no tenders received from outside of Dunedin.

Contact DCC on 477 4000.

DCC Link

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Post by Elizabeth Kerr