Historic-Places-Trust

4 Articles
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Maximus
2 Min Read

In some pretty shocking news that has just been leaked out of the new super-ministry this morning, the National War Memorial in Buckle St has been declared to be an earthquake prone building. The building, completed in 1932, has a concrete frame, but the weight of the heavy bronze bells in the Carillon is thought to have caused hairline cracks in the superstructure. The workers undertaking…

Maximus
5 Min Read

Disappointingly, discussion about Mayor Kerry’s first salvo into the next local body campaign seems to have dried up already. We can still keep on having that conversation – but in the mean time – just what exactly is going on with heritage at the moment? There’s something rather odd going on, and I really don’t quite understand it. Firstly, the government decides to effectively emasculate the…

Maximus
2 Min Read

The Wellington City Council must have known it was going to be picking a hard road to go down when it proposed Variation 11, and sure enough, the District Plan change is due to go to appeal at the Environment Court. Most of our readers will know about it: it’s a variation to permit buildings of a certain size to be constructed on the waterfront, without…

Maximus
4 Min Read

Watching an episode of Grand Designs recently, while on holiday, made me thankful that we don’t have such a high and idiotic level of bureaucracy as they do in England: but then again, nor do we have an architectural presenter with the charisma and sardonic tongue of Kevin McCloud.  In this programme, an architect called Francis Shaw was attempting to restore a castle in Skipton, in…