Auckland City councillors are today expected to vote in favour of saving an endangered building at Green Lane Hospital from demolition.
The councillors are likely to reject a recommendation from city heritage adviser George Farrant that the so-called Building 5 be dumped from a list of proposed new
protected buildings.
City development committee chairman Sam Lotu-Iiga says he will propose the building stay on the list, calling it "a step in the right direction".
The move is backed by Mayor John Banks who says "I can't believe for one moment that this Auckland City Council would take any other decision."
Mr Farrant initially scored the building 53, warranting heritage protection, but after protests from the Auckland District Health Board who want to knock it down to build a carpark, it was demoted to 49 - a fail grade.
Mr Banks said his stance was "all about sending a strong message to Aucklanders that in 2008 it's time to say enough's enough".
Labour-City Vision councillor Glenda Fryer will back her political rival's stance. She says the "fail" assessment had been based on misleading information about the building's age.
The first part of the building was completed in 1906 and opened a year later. An upper floor was added a decade later and officially opened in November 1917. In the first heritage assessment, Building 5 was dated 1915 and scored 2 points for being pre-1916. In the reassessment, Mr Farrant docked these points saying it was really a 1917 building.
An official history of the hospital, dated 1919, throws doubt on Mr Farrant's dating system. "The enlargement of the infirmary was decided upon in July 1915, the alterations consisting of the duplication of the existing buildings, by raising its roof and adding another storey, constructing a reinforced concrete floor, two flights of stairs and a lift-well." What style is it? Mr Farrant first said 1915, then 1917.
But critics asked if it duplicates the 1906 building, why not 1906?
