Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith discusses the National Music Centre project, housed in the basement of Wellington's Town Hall.
Media have been given a tour inside Wellington’s Town Hall as work continues on its $329 million redevelopment.
The Government’s given an additional $2 million for the National Music Centre being built in the basement.
The Civic Square building has been closed since it was deemed earthquake prone in 2013 and is expected to reopen in 2027.
Work on Wellington’s $329m Town Hall redevelopment continues ahead of its 2027 reopening, with the new National Music Centre in the building’s basement celebrating a recent Government funding boost.
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith announced an additional $2m to progress stage one of the National Music Centrein the Budget.
“We needed to put some extra resources to get it over the line”, Goldsmith said today.
Goldsmith invited media into the construction site of the Town Hall, which has been closed since it was deemed earthquake prone in 2013.
Like the Town Hall, the Music Centre is expected to be completed next year before opening early 2027.
Wellington's Town Hall is being redeveloped at a cost of $329m.
The Town Hall is located in Wellington's Civic Square precinct. Photo /Mark Mitchell
Goldsmith said ratepayers have “invested enormous sums in rebuilding and earthquake strengthening this wonderful facility”.
Once restored, Goldsmith believes the Town Hall in the capital’s Civic Square will be “once again a great jewel in Wellington’s crown.”
The cost of earthquake-strengthening and redeveloping the Town Hall has jumped over the years from $43m to $60m, $90m, $112m and is now estimated to be $329m.
When the latest cost blowout was announced in 2023, Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau said the structure was “an old, fragile, complicated heritage building built on reclaimed land – and the project team keep encountering new structural and ground conditions that are significantly impacting costs.”
Mayor Justin Lester in the Wellington Town Hall in 2019, after his council approved $112 million to upgrade the building. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The music for The Hobbit was recorded in the Town Hall with assistance from the NZSO, and Jackson said the Abbey Road audio engineers described the space as being one of “the best acoustic spaces they had encountered”.
More recently, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra has been involved with producing music for the Minecraft Movie.
The Music Centre includes performance spaces, rehearsal rooms and recording studios.
The centre is a collaboration between the council, NZ Symphony Orchestra and Victoria University of Wellington.
Wellington's Town Hall under construction.
NZSO chair Carmel Walsh told the Herald the project will benefit everyone in the city.
“It’ll be a big boon for the city to have the centre of the city open again and vibrant, Wellington has a well-earned reputation for being a cultural capital where the nightlife is fantastic, the music, the vibrancy of the city is well known, and we hope to contribute to that”, Walsh said.
The Music Centre’s budget for stage one of the project, made up of its Town Hall fit out, is $11.6m, Walsh said.
That includes $6m of previous Government funding, the new $2m in this year’s Budget, and philanthropic donations.
Wellington City Council’s latest project update from last year states the majority of seismic strengthening works are now coming to an end.
“So far, a base isolation system to reduce seismic loads and improve resilience has been retrofitted, alongside a new foundation system to accommodate the base isolation and further improve the inadequate foundation system that originally supported the building”, the project update said.
Ethan Manera New Zealand Herald journalist based in Wellington. He joined NZME in 2023 as a broadcast journalist and is interested in local issues, politics and property in the capital. Ethan can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.
