Massey House

• 1950 - 1950
• The Dairy Board offered the Meat Board a half-share in a site on Lambton Quay
• 1951 - 1951
• Preliminary plans prepared by Ernst Plischke and Cedric Firth, engineers were Edwards and Clendon (now Clendon, Burns and Park)
• 1952 - 1952
• Meat and Dairy Boards negotiated to purchase the property to the north of the site, but were not successful.
• 1953 - 1953
• Photomontage of the site appeared in the Evening Post
• 1954 - 1954
• Tenders called for the construction of the building
• 1955 - 1957
• Timber shops demolished and construction of Massey House
• 1957 - 1957
• The Building was opened
• 1958 - 1958
• Plischke designed the fit-out of the bookshop and café.
• 1966 - 1966
• The Meat and Dairy Boards arranged to purchase the site to the south that had been occupied by the Royal Hotel.
• 1967 - 1968
• Construction of the south extension to Massey House

Not assessed

Not assessed

Massey House was the most important building designed in New Zealand by noted Austrian-born architect, Ernst Plischke. The building represents something of a coming of age for New Zealand architecture, bringing to these shores “a clear statement of Modern architecture and the functional aesthetic of Internationalism.”

The eight-storey structure was reputedly influenced by the work of Le Corbusier; certainly, significant aspects of the building address Le Corbusier’s five points of architecture. Columns (called pilotis) elevate the mass of the building from the ground, introducing a lightness and airiness into the ground-floor frontage. Internally, this allows the planning to be more or less free of the structure. The facade is similarly independent, and the windows form a well proportioned pattern of grids and horizontal bands, carefully contrived. The eighth-floor balcony caps the building with a free-form concrete roof that suggests Le Corbusier’s trademark roof garden.

The building was designed for maximum transparency to reveal the structural frame, particularly at ground-floor and eighth-floor level where the glass walls recede behind the round columns of the building’s structure. The interior has many features of interest, particularly the showpiece rooms of the Meat Producers’ seventh-floor headquarters. Recessed lighting, built-in furniture crafted in local timbers, and many other features were well-documented in contemporary newspaper accounts of the building.

Concrete foundations, floors and walls

Curtain wall glazing

The building has two street elevations, the primary elevation is to Lambton Quay, and the secondary is to The Terrace.

Massey House, when it was first constructed, towered over the masonry Victorian and Edwardian buildings of Lambton Quay. Lambton Quay changed over the past sixty years, particularly during the “boom” years of the 1980s and Massey House is now just one of the many high-rise, curtain walled office buildings that predominate the streetscape of Wellington’s CBD.

To the north of Massey House is the 1960s former Manchester Unity Building (now Quest on Lambton) with its distinctive diamond pattern windows. To the south of Massey House is the 1967 extension by Cedric Firth, constructed at a slight angle to the original building to reflect the curve of the road. Further south is the later Allied Nationwide Finance tower and podium. 

Massey House is sited near the Stout Street Heritage Area that includes the following heritage buildings

• Supreme Court, 36-42 Stout Street and annexe, Whitmore Street
• Missions to Seamen Building, 7 Stout Street
• State Insurance, 143 Lambton Quay (plus Hotere sculpture in Stout Street footpath)
• Public Trust Building, 131 Lambton Quay
• Departmental Building, 15-21 Stout Street
• Façade, Courts Building, cnr, Stout and Whitmore Sts
• Wellesley Club, 2-8 Maginnity St

• Architectural

  Does the item have architectural or artistic value for characteristics that may include its design, style, era, form, scale, materials, colour, texture, patina of age, quality of space, craftsmanship, smells, and sounds?

  Massey House is one of the most influential examples Modern Movement architecture in New Zealand. The building has aesthetic value for the sculptural treatment of its structural elements. Of particular note is the cantilevered verandah with its “polka dot” lighting scheme; the ground floor piloti; the entrance foyer; the glazing to the ground floor retail units; the bookshop interior; and the roof terrace with its sculptural service towers.

• Group

  Is the item part of a group of buildings, structures, or sites that taken together have coherence because of their age, history, style, scale, materials, or use?

  The 1955-57 original building, along with the 1967 Firth extension and the c.1967 Manchester Unity building to the north make up a good representative collection of Modernist office buildings designed in the same time period, to the same scale, and utilising the same type of building materials.

• Townscape

  Does the item have townscape value for the part it plays in defining a space or street; providing visual interest; its role as a landmark; or the contribution it makes to the character and sense of place of Wellington?

  The building was once a landmark on Lambton Quay, and stood in strong contrast to the small scale, masonry, Edwardian and Victorian buildings that were the standard building type for Lambton Quay. Massey House was the precursor to the modern high-rise, curtain wall buildings that now surround it, and the building continues to make a strong positive contribution to a streetscape.

• Association

  Is the item associated with an important person, group, or organisation?

  The building has historic value for its association with the Meat and Dairy Producer Boards. The building is a significant work by Ernst Plischke, an influential Austrian-born architect and his partner Cedric Firth. There is also some historic significance for its association with Roy Parson’s bookshop that was in business until 2014.

• Association

  Is the item associated with an important historic event, theme, pattern, phase, or activity?

  The building has a strong historic association with the primary industries that were central to New Zealand’s development as a trading nation. The marketing boards were once central to the management of these primary industries.

• Archaeological

  Does the item have archaeological value for its ability to provide scientific information about past human activity?

  The building is located in Wellington’s CBD and the site is likely to have had a long history of occupation.

• Public Esteem

  Is the item held in high public esteem?

  The building is held in high esteem by the architectural community where it is considered to be a seminal building of the Modern Movement in New Zealand. This can be seen in the many architectural publications that include monologues on the building.

Not assessed

Not assessed

• Cochran, C. and Russell Murray, 2010. “Massey House, Lambton Quay Wellington: Conservation Plan”
• Kernohan D. 1989, Wellington.s New Buildings, VUW Press, Wellington p.63
• Tyler, L. 2008 “Massey House (now New Zealand Payroll House)” in Gatley, J (ed). Long Live the Modern: New Zealand’s New Architecture 1904-1984, Auckland University Press, Auckland.
• Tyler L. 1997 “Modernity Arrives” in Wilson J. ed., Zeal and Crusade - The Modern Movement in Wellington, Te Waihora Press, Wellington p.103
• WCC Heritage Inventory 2001 ref Lamb2
• WCC Heritage Inventory 2001 ref Appendix III.

• Inventory Report
• 1954 drawings

Not available