Reinventing a mid-century office block

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18 October 2022

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5 min read

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Seismic strengthening, a few extra storeys and an updated look creates a boutique building in central Wellington ready for a new generation of professional tenants.
The 1960s building in Wellington has been extensively refurbished. “It was called The Leaders Building,” says Marc Woodbury of Studio Pacific Architecture. “I think it was originally built for an insurance company.” Now owned by RJH, its new name, Brandon House, refers to its location on the corner of Featherston and Brandon Streets.
This building was within the model of commercial property owner RJH’s portfolio, says Marc. “But it was probably one of their most significant upgrades. There was an addition of end-of-trip facilities, so there are showers and bike parking, the kinds of things you now get in an office building."
“The client wanted to move the lifts to be more central in the building. We were redoing the core anyway in terms of bathrooms and so on, so we did. And that was because RJH likes to split the floors among potentially a number of different tenants so lifts placed centrally usually makes good sense as it reduces the amount of internal corridor.”
“RJH always has artwork in the lobby of its buildings, and music playing.” The stone is rosso levante marble.
“On the new timber top floors, we used some technologies that aren’t usually employed. The floors were raised with batten and cradle system – a plywood or particleboard flooring on battens which sit on rubber pads. That’s about acoustically isolating everything because timber doesn’t have the same mass as concrete. And it meant there was a bit of a cavity to run cabling as well.”
The curved corner of the building is just as eye-catching inside as it is on the exterior. Tenants will do their own individual fitouts, says Marc.
The ground floor of the building includes infrastructure for retail or hospitality. “There is a small area for retail on the corner, which is one structural bay and the curve, and then that continues on. All of the Featherston Street frontage is retail.”
Finer detailing accentuates the building’s proportions. “There’s a 'cap' at the top of the building that’s a series of vertical fins. It was something our client quite liked and is very traditional on an office building,” says Marc.