Gallery revamp becomes a challenging job for architects

Turning historic ex-hotel into a haven for art lovers became 10-year project for firm.

As with many big jobs, this one started out small. Auckland's Mitchell & Stout Architects was only initially asked to upgrade Titirangi's historic ex-hotel Lopdell House, expanding its existing art gallery and redesigning its basement theatre.

Work was really planned to focus on a single building. But that would never have worked.

The team - Julian Mitchell, Claire Natusch, Julie Stout, Dave Mitchell, Ginny Pedlow and Chia Lin Sara Lee - could immediately see the brief was impossible to meet thanks to what Julian Mitchell described as Lopdell's "egg-carton" style of construction: small internal boxy square spaces which did not endear themselves as repurposed dramatic art gallery.

"We saw no way of making the ground floor art gallery meet contemporary gallery standards. The old hotel had many windows and few walls. It had a low floor-to-floor height, with no room for the demanding air conditioning system that a modern gallery requires, nor for back-of-house service facilities," he said.

"So we suggested to the Lopdell House Development Trust that a new art gallery should be built next door, linked by bridges to upper-level offices in the old building and to a reconstructed deck on the roof."

Natusch said that over a 10-year period, the project expanded to include refurbishing the nearby small Category 2 1927 heritage building known as The Treasure House, which had once been the private museum of Frank Peat.

"And over the road we had to build a two-storey car park to serve the expanded population in the area," she explained.

The new six-level Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery is by far the most complicated and intriguing part of their work in the precinct.

"On this steep and constrained site, we considered the stack of galleries should rise to the height of Lopdell House next door, so the two buildings presented a coherent urban frontage to Titirangi Rd," Mitchell said. "We deliberately placed the main stair near the entry corner of the building as a nod in the direction of the same arrangement found in Lopdell House.

"And on the back, we clipped a glass-sheathed second stair on to the wall, like a 19th-century fire escape. So ascending this, you leave the internal world of galleries and look out over bush to the Manukau Harbour."

Te Uru staff say the result is so dramatic and awe-inspiring that artists craft to fit the galleries.

The gallery is clad in aluminium spray painted to look like old beaten copper turned bright green "which also resembles the colour of pohutukawa buds", Natusch said. Internal curving yellow stairs are a nod to Alvar Aalto's famous Paimio Sanatorium in Finland.

Next door at the Category 1 five-level 1930 Lopdell House, once called Titirangi Hotel, a seismic upgrade and major refurbishment was needed.

Buildings on the roof top terrace deck were demolished and the old building was linked to Te Uru via a series of air bridges.

"In the basement, new piles were drilled to a depth of 18m and bridged to carry the old foundations, while selected old brick walls were replaced with new concrete ones through the full height of the building, designed to resist earthquake loads," Mitchell said.

The theatre in the basement was flipped 90 degrees so the auditorium was enlarged and rebuilt. Sophisticated air handling systems, fire sprinklers, emergency lighting and other services were installed.

The once-musty theatre in what was the basement garage now has new seating, lighting, state-of-the-art changing facilities and dressing rooms and storage areas.

As for Te Uru, Mitchell & Stout have an art gallery track record, having designed the CBD's New Gallery in Lorne St and transforming a 1960s ex-bank building into the Tauranga Art Gallery.

Lopdell House is now strengthened to 75 per cent of new building standard.

Natusch said the $20.6 million for the project came from a variety of sources: "$12.8 million came from Auckland Council and the shortfall was raised from charities, private donations and Lotto."

Lopdell Precinct

• Mitchell & Stout Architects' work.
• Upgrade and strengthening of historic Lopdell House.
• New Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery.
• New two-level South Titirangi Rd carparking building.
• Refurbishment of The Treasure House behind Lopdell House.

• Clients: Lopdell House Development Trust and Auckland Council.