The Hutt City Council Administration Building, Town Hall and Events Centre Project is part of a larger project delivering a revitalised Civic Centre to Lower Hutt.

The Administration Building accommodates approximately 200 administrative staff, including the customer services centre and civic facilities such as the Mayor’s office and Council Chamber. The addition of the annex to the south of the building provides space for vertical circulation, meeting rooms and services, enabling the original building footprint to be dedicated to flexible open-plan workspace. The refurbishment of the Administration Building began with the seismic upgrade works and is a demonstration of how architecture+ works to integrate architectural design with heritage conservation, structural engineering, building services and construction methodology.

The Town Hall itself had become somewhat neglected over the years and had lost some of its importance as a civic facility, the modernist building with its gallery seating and proscenium stage requiring significant seismic upgrading. We worked in close collaboration with the council urban planner, as well as landscape architects to reinstate the Town Hall as the centre of the civic precinct.

A new events centre building complements the Town Hall’s sizeable performance space, offering flexible event spaces and associated break out rooms for functions, exhibitions, and dining events, as well as housing a public café. Accommodating up to 1300 seats, the new events centre is serviced by an on-site commercial kitchen that can cater to up to 600 guests. The versatility of the centre is further enhanced by an operable wall that can divide the space into two equally sized rooms for smaller scale events.

Project managers: RDT Pacific

Contractor: Naylor Love

Structural engineer: Dunning Thornton

Services engineer: Stephenson and Turner

Acoustic engineer: Marshall Day Acoustics