Mark Whyte at a corner of the gallery that has been completely replaced. Photo / Bevan Conley
Mark Whyte at a corner of the gallery that has been completely replaced. Photo / Bevan Conley
Hidden under the construction tent at the Sarjeant Gallery redevelopment is stonemason Mark Whyte, who is hard at work replacing, fixing and tidying up some of the Ōamaru stone cladding the original building.
It’s a painstaking process involving around 10 tonnes of new material.
Whyte, from Goldfield Stone in Christchurch,said the original parapet had been painted to look like Ōamaru stone and that caused moisture to be trapped.
“We had to take all that off.
“It was falling damp inside the building. You can’t have that in an art gallery. It’s a bad look.”
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A metal L-section needs to be installed on the interior of the building before that happens.
“They’re afraid the building might open in that part, and that stops it from happening,” Whyte said.
“Stonework gets spoiled by the drilling, of course. We have to take that section out and replace it.”
The original cladding on the gallery, which opened in 1919, was completed by the Graham brothers - P. Graham and Sons - from Canterbury, Whyte said.
“They were absolutely fantastic. They did the Corillian [war memorial] in Wellington, which is considered by many as the best-laid stone building in the country.
“When you get alongside this one [Sarjeant] and look at the horizontal lines, everything is perfect. It’s been built beautifully.”
Whyte said the goal was to conserve the material that was there, not completely replace it.
“We want it to be a lovely old building still, just in better condition.
“There need to be the tell-tale signs of age - slightly rumbled corners and stuff.”
Metal wall supports were anchored to the building before the entirety of the interior of the gallery was taken out, he said.
The original downpipe is being removed by Jurgens, with Mark Whyte on-hand to pick up the pieces. Photo / Bevan Conley
“When we first went in there it was like a walled sandpit, I kid you not.
“Now, we have to go by and fix all the [drill] holes. You would consider using a repair mortar, but because they’re in a line and they’re on every corner, you can see them.
“We’ll take the whole stone out.”
Other major undertakings at the site include replacing all the building’s stone grates and repointing the stonework using a saw - first horizontally and then vertically.
Pointing refers to the finish between stone blocks.
“We aren’t using traditional raking tools, which you would usually use for repointing, because I wanted a sharp line,” Whyte said.
Whyte, who is also a sculptor, carves replacement corner features by hand at a workshop on Hatrick Street.
The new stone comes from the same place as the original cladding, Parkside Quarry, northwest of Ōamaru near Weston.
It is around 60 million years old.
Contrary to popular belief, pointing on stone buildings needed to be revisited every 15 years, Whyte said.
“I blame the real estate industry,” he said.
“They were selling stone and brick buildings as permanent material buildings, where you don’t have to do anything to them.
“Well, you bloody do. You have to check the pointing on them.”
He was born in Whanganui and visited the Sarjeant Gallery as a child with his grandmother.
He wasn’t interested in the paintings.
“I would go in to look at one sculpture - The Wrestlers.
“I couldn’t believe it. It looked like two people but it was carved.”
Whyte and his team will be the last contractors on-site before the restored gallery is unveiled, touching up pointing if needed, doing a bit of levigating and making sure “everything is tickety-boo”.
Teams from Goldfield Stone are also working on the Christchurch Cathedral, Christchurch Boys’ High School and the Beaumont Bridge.
“I’ll get another team up here if I need to.
“Until then though, we’ll be going great guns for the next few months.”
Mike Tweed is an assistant news director and multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.
