“But on the other hand – is there any evidence that Plishke ever deigned to lessen his design ideals?” – Yep – His local houses realised in timber rather than reinforced concrete, and the insufficient detailing to accomodate this constructional shift… I really don’t understand the post-humous protection racket that Plishke seems to have attracted??? Do we still fall under the sway of the visiting European Master trope?

Although the book refers to it as “Plishke’s best-known building in New Zealand is Massey House” and notes Nikolaus Pevsner praising it thus “Of work of the last few years Mr Plishke’s Massey House at Wellington is an exception in scale as well as careful detailing.” it notes that Cedric Firth was probably responsible for getting the project into the office and also notes that “There is no surviving documentation of who worked on which aspects of the design”.

So no definite ruling either one way or another whether Firth or Plishke was the key designer – as always, these things involve more than one architect, especially for a building that size. And no information on who designed the extension either, except the office of “Firth and Plishke”.

But a possible surmisal – as the much derided extension to Massey House has been unliked by most architectural commentaters since it was built, then perhaps if Plishke did do the initial building, it may be unlikely that he would have wanted to spoil his masterpiece with the extension?

Perhaps we should forestall any similar discussion over Conservation House in future years: so, who was the Architect on the DoC project? Is it Stuart Gardyne? Or should we be lauding someone else?

Even so, I guess my point still stands – I suspect that much of the recognition is for the Plishke’s originally conceived building, which never physically existed (if you discount that image)… I think that many think that the image is a depiction of the building as it was first realised, and that it was later modifications that saw it lose this purity and precision.

Of course, only those with the supreme egotistical outlook and the power to match that can get away with such an attitude – witness our modern day Diva Zaha Hadid (rumoured to apparently write a column for the Arch Centre, which seems unlikely).

Nevertheless, it deserves a mention for being one of the first reinforced-concrete/fully-glazed curtain wall structures in New Zealand, and is significant for that reason – and also as a symbol of NZ finally attaining ‘Modernity’ (although MoW projects had pushed that boat out for some years prior to Massey House). That this type of building was run-of-the-mill overseas since the end of WWII (albeit on a much larger scale) is beside the point (isn’t it?).

Anyway, fwiw here is a link to images of the building as it looked not long after it was completed: http://media.tumblr.com/Ryau6dz2W9h7g4wiLvSP64y8_500.jpg

(Source: Clark, Justine, & Paul Walker. “Looking for the Local: Architecture and the New Zealand Modern.” Wellington: VUP, 2000: 147)

I just wonder whether the building would be so ‘revered’ if these were the dominant representations of it…?