Standard Building, 201 Princes Street —then and today

Standard Fire and Marine Insurance Company of New Zealand Building (1875)
Architect: Mason and Wales

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█ Ideas: https://www.pinterest.com/throughjo/staircasing/

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### ODT Online Sat, 29 Aug 2015
Surprises in old buildings
By Craig Borley
The doors to some of Dunedin’s historic buildings will be opened to the public today as the city’s heritage festival continues. The Dunedin Heritage Festival began yesterday with the “Dunedin 1865: A City Rises” photographic exhibition in the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. The festival finishes tomorrow. A major draw is the tours today and tomorrow of 64 historic buildings, which will be raising their customary barriers to the public […] the festival would also include a children’s heritage trail at Toitu Otago Settlers Museum, a walking trail following Dunedin’s original shoreline and a special service in First Church.
Read more

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### ODT Online Tue, 2 Jun 2015
‘Absolutely incredible’ revamp of heritage building
By John Gibb
An “absolutely incredible” conservation and adaptive reuse project is nearing completion in Dunedin. This work on the Standard Building in Princes St, including extensive earthquake strengthening [and restoration of the Italian-style facade] has been undertaken as momentum grows to further revitalise the Exchange area, and a wave of adaptive reuse work continues to transform the nearby warehouse precinct. […] The project also includes the Stanton Building, situated behind the Standard Building, and backing on to the council’s Dowling St car park. A crucial – and previously largely hidden – feature of the redevelopment is an innovative, light-filled multilevel internal atrium, making extensive use of glass, which will link the two buildings and provide access to the various floors.
Read more

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Related Posts and Comments:
23.8.15 1865 Dunedin —Heritage Festival 2015 ‘The Open City’ Sat 29 August
23.8.15 1865 Dunedin —Heritage Festival 2015 Shoreline Trail launch
17.3.12 Call for photographs or building plans – Standard Building….
24.10.11 Former Standard Insurance building, 201 Princes St, Dunedin

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Post and 4 smartphone images by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin: Randoms from inside warehouse precinct 18.10.14

Photographs taken at the Vogel St. Street Party (public tours) held on Saturday, 18 October. [click to enlarge]

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Jetty St overbridge with McIndoes, ADI, Jade and Reed’s buildings

View from Stavely Building rooftop across NMA Building to Holcim on Fryatt St

Bond St apartments and mixed use

Former Chief Post Office bronze-framed windows

Stavely Building, cnr Bond and Jetty Sts, apartments with shared atrium

Reed’s Building (former Otago Education Board offices), 75 Crawford St

Street art cnr Princes and Jetty Sts by Pixel Pancho (ITA)

Agricultural Hall and Sammy’s (former His Majesty’s Theatre), Crawford St

Street art, DCC carpark in Water St

Stavely Building parapet decal (side on) – Gresham Hotel relief (woman’s head)

Light fitting, Stavely Building – Chalk it up, DCC carpark Water St

Street furniture outside ADI (former Donald Reid Stores Building), 77 Vogel St

Mural by Phlegm (London), former Rogan McIndoe Building, Vogel St

Former Otago Harbour Board offices (43 Jetty St) seen from Reed’s Building

Former Gresham Hotel, Queens Gardens, cnr Rattray and Cumberland Sts

Street art by Be Free (AU), alley off Police St (behind 104 Bond St)

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Related Posts and Comments:
15.10.14 Vogel St. Street Party | Saturday 18 Oct 3pm – 11pm
22.6.14 Vogel Street Heritage Precinct (TH13) [photos]
5.8.14 DCC staff-led CBD projects that impact ratepayers | ….council debt
28.9.14 “DCC entitlement” about to ramrod change at CBD #manipulation
1.7.14 Jonathan Howard: ‘Changing Dunedin City: Snapshots from the air’
19.2.11 Reed Building, 75 Crawford Street for demolition?
13.6.10 No temporary cover: historic Stavely Building of Dunedin

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Images by Elizabeth Kerr

Hotel We LIKE: Distinction Dunedin Hotel at former CPO

Reopening the former Chief Post Office building “marks a significant milestone for the restoration project, with more tenants, a three-level car park building and, eventually, the 120-apartment four-star-plus Distinction Dunedin Hotel, all to follow”. (ODT)

Dunedin Chief Post Office (1930s)

### ODT Online Tue, 25 Mar 2014
Office workers light up CPO
By Chris Morris
The return today of a commercial tenant to Dunedin’s former chief post office building for the first time in more than 15 years marks a significant milestone in the restoration project. About 145 staff from Silver Fern Farms are expected to start work in their new headquarters – occupying the first two floors of the partially-restored building – this morning. It was the first time the building had been home to a permanent tenant since closing its doors in 1997, building owner Geoff Thomson, of Distinction Hotels, said.
Read more

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Dogged controversy.
Submissions in opposition to the proposed waterfront tower hotel at 41 Wharf Street (LUC 2012-212) make frequent mention of a preference to see the old Chief Post Office restored and in use as a city hotel in The Exchange.
Dull criticism from the anti-heritage brigade has often been cast at the old building’s owner for lack of speed in making the redevelopment happen.
Geoff Thomson, a canny and diligent man, has proceeded with the retrofit of this very large government architect-designed building at the pace he can afford in the up-down market he faces. Geoff Thomson deserves significant praise for his passion and perseverance in seeing the project through as well as attending to quality tenanting and leases.

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

Photo: Gerard O’Brien – Reroof, May 2011

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Related Posts and Comments:
22.6.13 Dunedin’s former Chief Post Office
5.3.11 Former Chief Post Office, Dunedin – magazine feature…
14.8.2010 No surprises with former CPO redevelopment
12.5.10 DScene – Geoff Thomson buys back former CPO
11.5.10 DCC Media Release – Chief Post Office
16.3.10 Planning the future of Dunedin heritage buildings [recent comments]
10.11.09 Dunedin public library services
24.10.09 Rodney Wilson: Dunedin as national heritage city
20.7.09 DCC + former CPO + others(??) = a public library (yeah right)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: rootsweb.ancestry.com – Dunedin Chief Post Office (1930s) re-imaged by whatifdunedin; odt.co.nz – Gerard O’Brien: CPO Reroof, May 2011 [screenshot]

Heritage: Old BNZ, Dunedin —restored

Work on the historic bank included strengthening the structure from 67% of building code requirements to 100% and installing a full fire sprinkler system.

205 Princes St – Old BNZ c.1888 (photo by FA Coxhead re-imaged)

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With Silver Fern [Farms] also moving into the old chief post office, it will give the Exchange momentum. The shops will do better and it will give the whole area more impetus. –Michael van Aart

### ODT Online Sat, 27 Jul 2013
Refurbished bank building ready for law firm
By Nigel Benson
Dunedin’s former commercial heart – the Exchange – will pulsate with new life next week. With scaffolding removed and tradesmen gone, the 130-year-old Bank of New Zealand building in Princes St will become the new home to commercial law firm Van Aart Sycamore Lawyers on Wednesday. The occupation of the building, which is considered architect William Barnett Armson’s (1834-1883) masterpiece, follows an 18-month restoration project.
“We’re really looking forward to moving in,” firm director Michael van Aart said yesterday. “The building is dramatic and one of a kind. We have to celebrate the unique features we have here in Dunedin and heritage is certainly one of them. The Exchange was the heart of New Zealand’s economy when it was built.”
The building had been untenanted for the past 13 years. Van Aart Sycamore Lawyers had been based in Radio House for the past six years and the move would be good for the Exchange, Mr van Aart believed.
Read more

Armson drawing no. 10, Princes St facade with secondary doorway

Readings:
New Zealand Historic Places Trust – Category 1 Historic Place
(No. 7299) Registration Report – the history and significance

[wikipedia] Princes Street, Dunedin
[wikipedia] Bank of New Zealand

Book: John Barsby, The BNZ Building, Princes Street Dunedin (Southern Heritage Trust, 2011)

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Related Post and Comments:
26.2.13 Bank of New Zealand Building, 205 Princes St (cnr Rattray)
[more images]

The banking desk designed by architect Robert A Lawson is held by Otago Settlers Museum; and an original ornamental fire surround from the bank is installed at Antrim House (NZHPT National Office) in Wellington (photographs in Barsby). It is thought one more fire surround went to another Wellington residence.

RA Lawson, Drawing for write-up desk, Old BNZ

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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

Bank of New Zealand Building, 205 Princes St (cnr Rattray)

BNZ Bank, The Exchange 1976

### ODT Online Tue, 26 Feb 2013
New lease of life for BNZ building
By Debbie Porteous
A grand old dame of the Dunedin streetscape is being brought back to life by a Dunedin law firm. The historic Bank of New Zealand Building at the corner of Rattray and Princes Sts, in the Exchange, will, come June, be home to commercial law firm Van Aart Sycamore Lawyers, after the company bought the building and is having it renovated. Firm directors Michael Van Aart and Tony Sycamore said they were looking for permanent premises and the building’s location, natural light and character had appealed. Mr Sycamore said he expected the building would be “a really nice place to work”. The location was also great. Buildings around the Exchange area were filling up with commercial tenants, in what was historically the commercial heart of Dunedin. The company’s 14 staff would be based on the first floor, and once they had moved in the firm hoped to find tenants for the other three floors.

The company was strengthening the building from 67% of code to 100%, and installing full fire sprinkler systems throughout, as well as renovating and fitting out new offices, while retaining the heritage features of the building preserved by previous owner Ted Daniels.

The company was working closely with the Dunedin City Council and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust on the refurbishment.
Read more

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Heritage New Zealand – Category 1 Historic Place
(No. 7299) Registration Report – the history and significance

The Bank of New Zealand Building was designed and constructed over the period 1877-1883. The architect, William Barnett Armson, was one of the first colonially-trained architects to work in New Zealand. He trained at Melbourne in architecture, engineering and surveying, and returned to New Zealand in 1862. The building is considered to be the architect’s masterpiece, and New Zealand’s finest surviving nineteenth century bank.

Interior, before alterations circa 1960. Campbell Photography, Dunedin

The bank is elsewhere described as one of the few New Zealand buildings to reflect the large scale of the sixteenth century Italian palazzo, its prototype. The richly carved exterior features New Zealand plants and landscapes carved by Louis John Godfrey. The interior was extensively modernised by the architects Mandeno and Fraser in 1958 but the superb plaster ceiling over the banking chamber was preserved.

Ceiling, main banking chamber

Related Post:
27.7.13 Heritage: Old BNZ, Dunedin —restored

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: BNZ Archives, Wellington (via Ted Daniels); Athol Parks, citywalks.co.nz

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

Former Standard Insurance building 201 Princes St, Dunedin

Building Owner: Exchange Renaissance Limited

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The Standard Fire and Marine Insurance Company of New Zealand Building was designed by architects Mason and Wales and put out to tender on 9 May 1874. The three-storeyed building, with a basement and slate roof, was completed in 1875. The insurance company remained at the building until 1884 when it moved to new offices in Lower High Street. A series of well-known businesses have been associated with the building in the century or more following.

Vacant since 1997, the Standard Building has been purchased by Ted Daniels and Wayne Marsh; they have also acquired the iconic former Bank of New Zealand building on the corner of Princes and Rattray Sts. Their planned redevelopment of the properties for commercial use includes conservation, restoration and adaptive reuse of the building fabric. Work is currently underway, the most visible of which is reinstatement of the historical facade of the Standard Building. Previously stripped, the original plaster detail and mouldings are being replicated, based on early photographs.

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Post and images by Elizabeth Kerr

Historic heritage up in flames, illegal apartment at 389 Princes St, Dunedin

### ODT Online Wed, 17 Aug 2011
Crews tackle central Dunedin fire
Five buildings were evacuated and one person taken to hospital as fire crews battled a blaze in an historic building in central Dunedin this afternoon. The fire, in an apartment above a second-hand bookshop, near Chipmunks south of the Exchange, was extinguished just before 3pm. Crowds gathered as flames shot out of the second storey of the S F Aburn Ltd building at 389 Princes St.
Read more

ODT Video: Princes Street Fire
Ch9 Video: Lucky escape in Princes Street apartments

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### ODT Online Thu, 18 Aug 2011
Women flee building fire
By Debbie Porteous
Frightened flatmates ran for their lives as a fire ripped through a central city Dunedin building yesterday afternoon. Crowds gathered in Princes and Bond Sts yesterday afternoon to watch the Fire Service battle the blaze that gutted an apartment above second-hand bookstore Raven Books, at 389 Princes St.

The Dunedin City Council confirmed yesterday it had no record of the building being upgraded to provide sleeping accommodation.

The building’s owner Patrick Rainsford, who also runs Raven Books, did not return calls last night. His address as listed in the phonebook is 389 Princes St.

Read more

Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

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Images ©2011 Elizabeth Kerr

Clydesdale Horse Centennial Parade Saturday 11 June #Dunedin

Clydesdales in the Octagon! Followed by parade!

These Temporary Road Closures will be in place between 10.15am and 12noon:

The Octagon Central Carriageway
The Lower Octagon between Princes Street and George Street
Lower Stuart Street between The Octagon and Castle Street
Castle Street
St Andrew Street

The Parade Wagons will make their way from The Octagon, at 12noon, to Forbury Park, along Princes Street, King Edward Street,Prince Albert Road and Richardson Street. Manual Traffic Control will be in place.
DCC Link

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Continuing folly: Dunedin iSite visitor centre

### ODT Online Tue, 19 Apr 2011
New home for visitor centre
By David Loughrey
Dunedin’s iSite visitor centre is about to move, but it will not be returning to its old home in the Municipal Chambers. Its move to a new home at 26 Princes St, next door to its current position, will allow the city’s Community Gallery to move back to its original Princes St premises. A report to yesterday’s finance, strategy and development committee by assistant city property manager Rhonda Abercrombie said the cost of the move back to the Municipal Chambers would be up to $80,000.
Read more

Related Post:
5.2.11 Community Gallery: Badly forced and mishandled

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Former Chief Post Office, Dunedin – magazine feature . . .

### ODT Online Sat, 5 Mar 2011
Magazine: Second time around
By Mark Price
For 17 years, developers have talked of turning Dunedin’s once-grand-now-derelict former chief post office in Princes St into a hotel. But, it has never happened. Mark Price tries to find out if the current owner has what it takes to salvage one of the city’s heritage landmarks.
Read more

Graphic: Timeline of transactions
Chief post office – How it was (images)

What if? – It is well known that internal fabric stored in the basement ‘disappeared out the back door’ – by the truckload – when a former owner of the building, who shops at the casino, allowed a gang debt collector to occupy the basement flat.

Related Posts:
14.8.10 No surprises with former CPO redevelopment
27.5.10 Distinction Dunedin: former chief post office
12.5.10 D Scene – Geoff Thomson buys back former CPO
11.5.10 DCC Media Release – Chief Post Office
23.10.09 Weekend ODT looks at The Exchange
3.9.09 Dunedin Public Library feasibility
20.7.09 DCC + former CPO + others(??) = a public library (yeah right)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Weekend ODT looks at The Exchange

Updated April 18, 2013 at 3:07 pm

Alert from Channel 9:
Barry Stewart says tomorrow’s ODT magazine section looks at The Exchange area and “what they’re doing there”.

Who is ‘they’ we ask. Like Scenic Circle and Dunedin Casino shouldn’t be building a god-awful one-level carpark to replace the former Bank of Australasia and the former Butterworth building in High Street…when good stewards like the Macknight’s have put in the grunt work and finance to do up their heritage Bing Harris building (with the abutting Clarion building) across the road, enhancing precinct values and attracting new business to the ‘style’ end of town.

Let’s see what ODT’s on about…

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### ODT Online Sat, 24 Oct 2009
Magazine: Solid centre
By Charmian Smith
Princes St and the Exchange area, where the Toitu stream once flowed into the harbour, was where local Maori beached their canoes on the tidal mud flat and also where the first European settlers landed – there is a plaque on the footpath at the corner of Water St and Princes St marking the spot. Nearby Jetty St is so named because it led to the jetty.
Read more + ‘Grand buildings dominate the Exchange’ (slide show)
Photos by Peter McIntosh

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### ODT Online Sat, 24 Oct 2009
Magazine: Change of plan
By Charmian Smith
Once the financial heart of the city, the Exchange has seen better times. But things are changing. Following the report by museum consultant Dr Rodney Wilson, made public this week, about Dunedin’s standing as “a special and unique heritage site”, Charmian Smith investigates the rejuvenation of Dunedin’s CBD.

[Excerpts]
● Structural engineer Stephen Macknight’s family has redeveloped the former New Zealand Insurance Company building, now Queens Gardens Court, the former New Zealand Express Company building, now Consultancy House, and most recently the Clarion/Bing Harris buildings between Princes St and High St. The other members of the family are busy in their respective professions, so buying, redeveloping and tenanting buildings is as much a passion as an investment – although they need to have a fair return, Mr Macknight says. “We are looking at doing something that is of real value and adds to the area and we get satisfaction from it as well.”
● William Cockerill, managing director of project management specialists Octa, has redeveloped the former National Bank building in Princes St. Octa’s innovative and sustainable renovation of the building has won several national and international awards, and now more than 70 people work in it, with major tenants including Motor Trade Finance in the splendid banking chamber, and Tourism Dunedin in the tower block. Upgrading buildings in an inner-city area is more sustainable than building on new sites, as all the amenities such as sewerage and roads, parks and other public spaces are already there, he says.
● Peter Harris, manager of the city council economic development unit, says there are many innovative but low-profile software businesses in Dunedin, many clustered around the Exchange, whose customers are mainly offshore.
● Dunedin City Council city development manager Anna Johnson says one of the challenges with the Exchange area is relatively low market rentals which discourage landlords from renovating. If the council invests in the former chief post office, the largest building in the area, it could be an incentive to raise the value of the smaller properties which would then make it economically viable to redevelop them.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin Public Library feasibility

### ODT Online Thu, 3 Sep 2009
Library decision on hold until next year
By David Loughrey
A proposal to move the Dunedin Public Library to the former chief post office building in the Exchange will not be decided upon until next year.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr