Simon Williams, pictured in front of the new Excel/DHL building in East Tamaki, has been designing industrial buildings for 20 years. Photo / Martin Sykes
Auckland architect and industrial building specialist Simon Williams is behind many of the new buildings now rising at the $1 billion Highbrook Business Park on the Waiouru Peninsula.
Williams designed the completed DHL/Exel building on Highbrook Drive and the new McPhersons Consumer Products building.
He also designed many
of the buildings under construction, including industrial units, new premises for BMW and Cottonsoft and the Highbrook units.
One building on the site has been expanded three times, providing a series of challenges for his firm, Williams Architects.
The DHL/Exel building was the first he designed for Highbrook, a block of land 25 per cent owned by the estate of Auckland industrialist Sir Woolf Fisher and 75 per cent owned by ASX-listed Macquarie Goodman Group, which manages and owns a stake in NZX-listed Macquarie Goodman Property Trust.
Williams, who has specialised in industrial architecture for the last 20 years, said the DHL/Exel building aimed to set the scene at the 193ha site for construction and design intent.
"Exel have been an old client of ours," he said. "We have completed about seven buildings for them over the years under different ownership banners. We value long-term relationships and believe, with partnering, we can understand more fully their needs and deliver an improved building each time - a bit like a later-model car," Williams said.
He aimed to "future-proof" premises by giving clients the ability to split their buildings so different tenants could occupy them.
