Auckland Town Hall
| Auckland Town Hall | |
|---|---|
The Town Hall from Queen Street adjacent to nearby Aotea Square.
|
|
| General information | |
| Type | Town hall |
| Architectural style | Italian Renaissance Revival |
| Location | Auckland, New Zealand |
| Address | Queen Street |
| Construction started | 1909 |
| Completed | 1911 |
| Inaugurated | 14 December 1911 |
| Renovated | 1994-1997 |
| Cost | £126,000 |
| Renovation cost | NZ$33 million |
| Owner | Auckland Council |
| Height | 45m |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | JJ and EJ Clarke |
| Renovating team | |
| Structural engineer | Sinclair Knight Merz |
| Designated | 27-Jul-1988 |
| Reference no. | 549 |
The Auckland Town Hall is a historic building on Queen Street in downtown Auckland, New Zealand, known both for its original and ongoing use for administrative functions (such as Council meetings and hearings), as well as for its famed Great Hall and its separate Concert Chamber. The Town Hall and its surrounding context is highly protected as a 'Category A' heritage place in the city's district plan.
Opened on 14 December 1911 by Lord Islington, then the Governor of New Zealand, the building is one of the most prominent heritage structures on Queen Street. Costing £126,000 to construct, it was designed by Melbourne architects, JJ & EJ Clarke, their Italian Renaissance Revival building selected from amongst 46 proposals. The five-storey building was specially designed to fit the wedge-shaped piece of land that had been acquired for it at the meeting of Queen Street and Grey Street in the 1870s. It bears a striking resemblance to the new Lambeth Town Hall at Brixton, London built around the same time. The town hall formed Auckland's first permanent seat of both administration and entertainment in the city's history, with its Great Hall (seating 1,673 people) modelled on the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and being considered as having among the finest acoustics in the world.
The exterior is constructed of two types of stone, the ground floor is made of a dark volcanic basalt, heavily rusticated, which contrasts with the pale stonework of the upper stories. Oamaru limestone from the south island was used for the upper part of the building. The lower part is often assumed to be Auckland Basalt but was actually sourced from Melbourne. This was probably due to the architects already having a history of sourcing consistently good quality stone from the quarries there as well as them probably having better heavy duty steam saws to handle the notoriously difficult stone.
...
Wikipedia