Stay of execution for deco block

The Jean Batten building was part of the international style that developed into today's office blocks. Picture / Glenn Jeffrey

A historic building looks set to upset plans for the Bank of New Zealand's new $30 million national headquarters.

Auckland's Jean Batten State Building could get a stay of execution, following a new analysis that shows it has historic significance.

Ian Grant of Auckland City's heritage division said yesterday that in preparing a report on the building he found it qualified as a category B building. He scored the building at 59 points, meaning it was worthy of preservation, but said his evaluation was yet to go before Auckland City heritage manager George Farrant.

"This is a preliminary evaluation," Grant said. "It needs to be verified by our researcher."

But he said the building had historic value and called for it to be integrated into the Bank of New Zealand's redevelopment.

"Personally, I think it could be adapted with the co-operation of the BNZ and we could still achieve their requirements and get a satisfactory outcome."

BNZ executives are due to meet council heritage staff on Friday to iron out a deal.

The Multiplex Group and the Bank of New Zealand have a scheme to redevelop the site bounded by Queen St, Shortland St, Fort St and Jean Batten Place.

Last month, Multiplex development director Johann Schumacher said from Melbourne that by 2007, the buildings on the site would be replaced by a new 10-level building.

BNZ spokesman Owen Gill said in December that hundreds of bank staff working around Auckland would be centralised in the proposed new building. Staff would come from the building to be demolished at 80 Queen St, from the tower almost opposite the site at 125 Queen St and from Vincent St.

But preservationists have been lobbying Auckland City to protect the building. Just before Christmas, the Art Deco Society and heritage advocate Allan Matson prepared reports that showed the building's historic merits.

Matson applied to the council for a private plan change for the building, prompting its heritage division to reassess the building's merits. He used this same technique to save the historic Fitzroy, a former hotel on Wakefield St, when a high-rise apartment block was planned.

Last year, Grant reassessed the Fitzroy and confirmed that based on the historical background supplied by Matson, the building was worthy of a historic rating because it scored 57 points.

In the past few months, the council has upgraded that to become Auckland's most precious former hotel, scoring 72 points. The Historic Places Trust has registered the Fitzroy as Category B building. The Fitzroy is the oldest scheduled pub and the oldest listed brick building in the city.

Matson welcomed the new assessment of the Jean Batten building and called for the bank to retain it, saying it occupied only one-third of the development site.

"The council has a legal right and duty to protect the building," he said.

But Dorothy McHattie of the Art Deco Society said the building's score was still too low. It would score 74 points if the significance of its architect was acknowledged and aviator Jean Batten was credited with being "even loosely" associated with it. A score of 75 points, would give the building an A rating.

Farrant said last year the Jean Batten building was not protected by scheduling, nor was it registered by the Historic Places Trust.

"According to our records, a consent to demolish has been active for some four years at least. It was assessed in some detail in 2000 by Auckland City Heritage as part of the central area plan review, using the careful 15-point scoring matrix used for all central area buildings, objects and places.

"To have a robust and defendable district plan schedule of protected places, our systems must be transparent, consistent, rigorous, and dispassionate. This is because it is the district plan that is the definitive heritage control that defines what an owner can or cannot do. Our systems therefore cannot involve the emotive inclusion of any place that doesn't score, just because we might like it.

"Although the building achieved moderate-to-low scores in categories such as style, construction, design and social context, getting a cumulative rank of 45, this was less than the 50 required to be protected even as a category B," he said.

"Therefore although not without some heritage value, it could not make it on to the schedule. Apart from some minor interior features such as a stair, its virtues were effectively confined to its exterior, which had become compromised over recent years in any case."

WHY THE FUSS ABOUT THE JEAN BATTEN STATE BUILDING?

The structure was designed by Government architect John Thomas Mair in 1937.

Mair designed most government buildings between 1923 and 1941.

Fletcher Construction won the tender to build it and began earthworks in December 23 of the same year.

The design was ahead of its time, part of the "international style" and a forerunner of today's office blocks.

The seven-level building has strong horizontal features on its art deco exterior, steel-framed windows and rounded-off corners.

The United States Navy used the building as its covert base here between 1942 and 1945 - the Post Office was a cover for the military operations in floors above.

Now, a bank and a developer want to demolish it to make way for a $30 million redevelopment.