At the exhibition opening are (from left) Palmerston North Mayor Grant Smith, NZ Institute of Architects president Judith Taylor, architect Brian Elliott, and the institute's western director Felicity Wallace.
Imagine coming to Palmerston North, fresh out of architecture school, and immediately designing two of its most distinctive buildings. Then you go on to fill the city and surrounding regions with iconic structures across the next five decades.
That’s the story told in Brian Elliott: 55 Years of Architecture at
Te Manawa Art Gallery. Through drawings, photographs and video, follow the development of Elliott’s biggest – and smallest - projects, such as UCOL Te Pūkenga, the Globe Theatre, and what’s now Spotlight.
“The essence of good architecture is that it makes people’s lives better,” Elliott says.
“It enhances the entire community, making it vital to society as a whole.”
His career began in 1972 with a plunge into the deep end: Designing two radically different office blocks on opposite sides of The Square. What is now the TSB building is relatively conventional compared with the exciting 45-degree angles, portholes and space-age countenance of the Colonial Mutual Life Assurance building, now @ The Hub, at the bottom of Rangitīkei St.
