Designed by New Zealand Railways chief draughtsman George Troup and constructed between 1904-1907, the Dunedin Railway Station is a building of international heritage relevance. It is the architectural symbol of the New Zealand rail system’s growth between the XIX and XX centuries and an outstanding monument of Edwardian architecture. The striking combination of local Oamaru stone carvings with Kokanga and Port Chalmers basalts blocks gave the Station the characteristic nickname of ‘Gingerbread House’, as it is widely known throughout the country.

Salmond Reed Architects’ involvement with this iconic Dunedin City building started in 2018, with a structured plan of essential repairs and maintenance from which it derived an ongoing consultancy through the whole project, completed in the spring of 2023.

The Oamaru stone is an important part of the historic landscape heritage value of the Central Otago region, and we took special care of its presence on this building. We carefully noted the condition of the soft limestone elements during the survey phase; and we liaised with expert local workmanship during the contract phase, sourcing the best material and designing the best solutions for localised mortar repairs, and piecing-in new stone.

We approached the whole conservation project with the same philosophy, (dividing it into three stages following the main horizontal dimension), including, as much as possible, the refitting and re-using of the existing materials, especially the original Marseille roof tiles and the cast iron rainwater fittings. Where replacement was necessary, like in the case of the leaking lead gutters, some clay tiles broken beyond repair, and the corroding zinc fish-scale tiles, the new elements were carefully manufactured in situ or sourced from Europe.