Fowler: Owners refuse to let heritage crumble

SPARKLING GEM: The former Napier Fire Board building in Tennyson St, Napier. PHOTO/TONY SPEAKMAN

Opinion

While many owners of heritage buildings in Napier (and Hastings) naturally require a return on their investment, they also invest because they value the architecture and what it means to Napier.

Owning a heritage building involves its own set of unique issues - such as earthquake-strengthening - and, similar to vintage cars, they can be expensive to maintain.

That's why in many respects I believe the unsung heroes of Napier's Art Deco success story of the past 30 or so years are the heritage-building owners who care enough to preserve them sympathetically.

If these buildings disappear or fall into neglect, it goes without saying Napier's Art Deco product will be diminished.

Rod Earnshaw and Margie Campbell, the owners of the former Napier Fire Board building in Tennyson St, wanted to repurpose their heritage building - but not for the first time in its history.

In 1968, after the Napier Fire Brigade had relocated to Taradale Rd, architect Guy Natusch saw the potential for the building as a design centre, and bought it.

He shifted his practice there in 1969 after some alterations were made, and other related professionals joined him.

It opened as the DESCO Building (Design and Construction).

The Art Deco Trust shifted into part of the ground floor in 1992, and gradually took over the whole bottom level (until leaving several years ago to operate at its present location of 7 Tennyson St).

When the Natusch partnership left the building, the name was changed to the Deco Centre, but the one-letter change caused some confusion among the public.

With the building's latest repurposing, Rod and Margie gave it a sense of its history by creating four upper-level luxury apartments, complete with Art Deco touches such as light fittings and wallpaper, and a reflection of its history and the fire brigade's time there.

The hallway, for instance, is decorated with plans and documents related to the building - as if they had been pasted on, and each glass shower wall bears the old Napier Fire Board's initials and monogram.

The four apartments are called Louis Hay after the original architect (1921) and its reconstruction (1932) after the 1931 Hawke's Bay earthquake; Natusch after Guy Natusch, who first repurposed the building in 1969, and his firm - which has served Napier for three generations; Monterelles after the massage parlour that occupied a building behind; and New York, named because of its industrial conversion look.

While Rod said it was a robust structure, computer modelling revealed some additional steel work at the back of the building was required.

"Originally the building was in a horse-shoe shape, allowing access from the rear and a space for the steel bell and hose drying tower.

"As the requirements of the fire service grew, the rear was enclosed. Hence, the potential for weakness in this area.

"All structural steel work was completed in late 2015, prior to the builders commencing the apartment conversion."

The building now has a minimum 50 per cent New Building Standard (NBS) rating.

Rod dealt with all the construction work, and was more than happy to leave the decoration to Margie - to which I think she has done a fantastic job.

• Michael Fowler (mfhistory@gmail.com) is a chartered accountant and heritage officer at the Art Deco Trust.