Mark Whyte examining an example of a 'banker' stonework on the Sarjeant Gallery facade. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
Robin Martin of RNZ
The man in charge of the Sarjeant Gallery earthquake strengthening and redevelopment project in Whanganui says it has been one of the most complex and challenging of his 40-year career.
More than a year behind schedule and with a price tag of almost $70 million - about twice that first mooted - the developers can now see light at the end of the tunnel.
Working on the Oamaru stone cladding of the Sarjeant Gallery was a dream job for its lead stonemason, Whanganui-born Mark Whyte.
“The building’s in great condition. You know, there’s a few cracks from settlement, ground settlement, and a few cracks up the east elevation.
“But now, of course, that’s all earthquake-strengthened from the inside and we’re just patching the stone on the outside.
“Well, we’re not actually patching it. We’re removing stones and replacing stones.”
Now living in Christchurch, Whyte and a team from Goldfields Stone were using blocks of Oamaru stone from the same Parkside quarry used in the construction of the Sarjeant Gallery 104 years ago.
Theirs was a subtle art.
“You don’t want to make it look brand new, because the reason we love it is because it’s survived all these years,” Whyte said.
“So, it’s just kind of lovely and so you don’t want to renew it. We’re not making a new building, we’re simply repairing an old building.
“And we’re conserving ... it’s sort of a combination of stone conservation and restoration.”
The neo-classical Sarjeant Gallery with its distinctive domed roof has been closed since 2014 after it was revealed it met just 5 per cent of the building code.
Redevelopment work began in 2019, after a heroic fundraising effort and a hefty government contribution of more than $20m towards the project - which includes a brand new wing.
Project manager Barry Robin, of McMillan and Lockwood, said it had been a demanding experience.
“There’s a challenge at every corner of the building. On a lot of the existing building, we had to [do] a lot of demolition before we could do any new work.
“And as soon as you open up an area, we exposed elements of the old build we didn’t anticipate and the engineers had to go back to the drawing board and design new works and that all takes time.”
Earthworks for the new wing also posed issues as did Covid and subsequent staff shortages.
About 70 per cent of people on site were migrant workers.
Robin said earthquake-proofing the existing gallery had involved wrapping the foundations in tonnes of concrete.
“Basically, you’ve got a very weak building, the existing building, and in the basement up to the gallery level, we’ve built a concrete structure that encapsulates the old structure.
“If you like, we’ve got an exoskeleton built around the old framework or bones of the old building and that’s what is holding it up.”
Site manager Daimen Attwell was in charge of constructing the new wing.
“Down here in the basement, the main feature I’ve got is really the archives. This whole area down here is our archives, so this is where they will be storing their 9000 pieces of art.
“And obviously we’ve got the plaza roof which is on top of here - half of it is grass, or a living roof, so there is quite a lot of unique features.”
The features did not end there.
“We’re calling this the fishbowl because it is completely surrounded by glass, so that’s another feature of the building is that level zero or the ground floor is glass right the way round.
“And then we step up to level one, which is our gallery, so that’s completely enclosed except for the waka or bridge going out one side and our little bubble here, where you look straight out on to Ruapehu on this side.
The redeveloped Sarjeant Gallery Te Whare o Rehua Whanganui was now due to open in mid-2024.
Its total cost was currently estimated at $68.3m, more than 77 percent of which was being met by central government, grants, trusts and private donors.
Whanganui ratepayers were forking out $15m towards the project - three times the amount first expected.
-RNZ