Stout Street Precinct

Stout Street Heritage Area, although a relatively small area, has a wide range of settings. At the western end, the gateway buildings – State Insurance and Public Trust – are a strong presence on Lambton Quay, which is in turn a major influence on the setting at that end of the area. The enclosed canyon of the western portion opens on to the lower and more expansive eastern end of the street. There are long vistas down Stout Street to the Wellington Railway Station, and down Whitmore and Ballance Streets to Lambton Quay and Featherston Street. 

Further afield, the hill of Parliament Buildings, and behind it Tinakori Hill, are landmarks. As befits this part of the CBD, tall office buildings are omnipresent without necessarily being directly in view. 

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The extent of the heritage area is shown in the District Plan, Chapter 21, Appendix 16.

This heritage area takes in the western end of Stout Street, between Whitmore Street and Lambton Quay (plus the Wellesley Club on the corner of Maginnity and Whitmore Streets), focussing on the most important remaining heritage buildings in the vicinity. There are seven buildings contained within the area, of which five are significant heritage buildings. Justice Park, on Lambton Quay, the former site of the Central Police Station and Magistrates Court, is very closely associated the courts and so is also included in the area. It is also a place of potentially high archaeological value.

Along with the nationally important collection of heritage buildings, the area is also notable for its key vistas which remain much as they were in the 1940s. The longest view, from Lambton Quay, terminates at the Railway Station and forms an interesting conceptual link with the area’s long history of public service and its intimate association with the development of Wellington as a centre of government.

The key buildings in the heritage area decrease in scale and increase in age towards the eastern end of the area – an important transition. The oldest buildings, the former Supreme Court and the Missions to Seamen provide a link in age, scale and streetscape quality with the nearby Parliamentary precinct and reflect the initial pattern of development in the area. The most recent heritage buildings, State Insurance and the Departmental Building, connect the expansion of government with the commercial development of the north end of Wellington city and are of a scale that relates well to the surrounding high city area.

Stout Street contains a nationally important collection of heritage buildings. The area is notable for its key vistas which remain much as they were in the 1940s. The longest view, from Lambton Quay, terminates at the Railway Station and forms an interesting conceptual link with the area’s long history of public service and its intimate association with the development of Wellington as a centre of government.

The key buildings in the heritage area decrease in scale and increase in age towards the eastern end of the area – an important transition in the townscape of the northern city. The oldest buildings, the former Supreme Court and the Missions to Seamen provide a link in age, scale and streetscape quality with the nearby Parliamentary precinct and reflect the initial pattern of development in the area. The most recent heritage buildings, State Insurance and the Departmental Building, connect the expansion of government with the commercial development of the north end of Wellington city and are of a scale that relates well to the surrounding high city area.

Supreme Court

The most significant and oldest of the buildings along Stout Street is the former Supreme Court building at the eastern end, which is also the earliest of the several buildings in the area that were the original occupants of their sites. The first major masonry structure to be built by the government in Wellington, it was completed in 1880 on newly reclaimed land and remained in continuous use as the country’s premier court for 113 years, superseded only when the High Court transferred to a new building in Molesworth Street in 1993.

Designed by P.F.M. Burrows in a carefully correct and quite elegant Palladian neo-Classical style, the former Supereme Court has a strong sense of the formal buildings of 18^th century England in its appearance. It is constructed in traditional load-bearing masonry with a plaster render, a significant expression of permanence and strength appropriate to its sober function.

It has a well-balanced composition, enhanced by well-designed additions of 1906 and 1913, consisting of a T-shaped plan with a two storey main block rising above flanking pavilions. The detailing is rather severe and formal but is carefully composed and elegantly executed. The lower storey is strongly rusticated above a low plain plastered base and features round-headed windows with prominent keystone details, a mid-level string course and an openwork balustraded parapet above a projecting cornice. The second storey is more ornamented with a regular composition of Composite-order pilasters framing square-headed windows with triangular pediments supported on corbels. A strong cornice line with dentils and consoles is all that remains of the original triangular pediments, which were removed when the roof line was altered in 1956 to a hipped configuration from its original gabled arrangement. A clumsy addition was made to the west elevation in 1981 to accommodate the Judge’s office.

While both the exterior and interior of the building were altered and added to over the 112 years of court use, the building retains a high degree of authenticity, particularly in the interior which has some work of exceptional quality(especially in the main courtroom), and it retains very high heritage values. The building was repaired / restored in c.2006 - 2009 and strengthened with a system of base-isolation.

Due to its plan form, the building is surrounded with a rare degree of open space on its site and this, coupled with its low scale, careful massing and elegant detailing, gives it very high townscape value, particularly in its relationship to the nearby Parliamentary precinct. This building is perhaps the most important in the heritage area.

While the elevation to Stout Street is a lesser one, it contains one of the building’s main entrances and still contributes significantly to the character of the streetscape and to the important visual transition from the taller buildings at the western end to the much lowerscale government precinct beyond.

Missions to Seamen

The former Missions to Seamen building, opposite the Supreme Court, was built in 1903 and it was also the first building on its site on the reclamation. Although it has now been converted into apartments it originally included fine, large internal spaces (now subdivided).

A two-storey masonry construction, the Missions to Seamen building was designed by the well-known architectural firm of Chricton & McKay in an eclectic blend of Romanesque and Classical styles. The building sits on a prominent corner site opposite the former Supreme Court.

It has two principal façades, each symmetrically composed, with the main entrance on Stout Street. The elevations are characterised by tall pediments, each containing a round-headed window, which relate to the steeply pitched and complex roof form behind. The intermmediate bays have square-headed windows. The building is only lightly decorated with details worked in to the plasterwork, including a variety of Romanesque and maritime motifs.

The building was converted to unremarkable apartments in 1994 with the loss of its special internal spaces, although some original interior fabric has survived this change. One of the major visible consequences of this alteration is the change of roof material from the original Marseilles tiles to a pink pressed metal roof, which, combined with a drab olive brown wall colour detracts somewhat from the architectural finesse of the building.

Nevertheless, the building has high heritage values and its strong presence in the streetscape makes an important contribution to the qualities of the heritage area as a whole.

Western End

At the western end of Stout Street, the principal entrance to the street, are three important buildings related to the government –  the former Public Trust building (1908), the former State Insurance building (1939) and the former Departmental building (1940) –  which form a special triptych in the townscape and define the most important vista down the street.

Public Trust

The Public Trust building was opened in 1909 and remained the head office of that organisation until 1982. This flamboyant Beaux-Arts Baroque building is perhaps the best known work of Government Architect John Campbell. Behind its exuberantly detailed stone, brick and plaster façades and fine finishing materials, it has an innovative steel structure designed with the lessons of the 1906 San Franciso earthquake in mind.

The building is an important Wellington landmark that takes great advantage of its spectacular corner site with the extraordinary lantern dome and drum, flanked at right angles by the two main façades. Both façades are heavily articulated, most notably with the large segmental-arched pediments at roof level supported on giant-order Corinthian columns. The heavily rusticated base of the building is finished in Tonga Bay granite and has arched openings. The moulded plaster architraves of the windows in the main body of the building are heavily blocked and contribute a great deal of texture and contrast to the façade particularly against the red brick body of the walls. The overall effect is one of great three-dimensional vitality.

The main entrance at the centre of the drum is gained up a flight of radiating terrazzo steps which lead in to the foyer, resplendent in mosiac tiling and richly moulded plasterwork. While the interior has been altered many times, a reasonable amount of original building fabric remains and the building retains a high degree of authenticity.

1.2.2         State Insurance

The State Insurance building forms a very interesting contrast with the apposite Public Trust building. One of the few new buildings constructed in the city during World War II, it was designed by prominent architects Gummer and Ford and is as interesting for its original state-of-the-art engineering design and technical fit-out as it is for its distinctive architecture and fine materials. Originally eight stories high with an underground car-park (the first in Wellington), the building is supported on a reinforced concrete frame, and was originally fitted out with technically sophisticated lighting, mechanical ventilation and fire protection systems and high-speed elevators.

An important early New Zealand modernist building, its most distinctive architectural feature is the unique corrugated façade which wraps the building very elegantly around the corner site. This architectural device gives the building a lively appearance in the street and emphasises its very carefully controlled composition. The elevations are articulated around the street corner by the flat façade at the entrance which is set across the angle of the corner and which rises to the top of the building interrupted only by a balcony at the eigth floor. The entrance is is marked by a double height portal worked in to the base material of the building and a tall pair of columns surmounted by rampant bronze lions. The flanking façades are corrugated on either side of the entrance, back to a plain wall panel at each far corner. The windows follow the corrugations with curved frames and glass. Simple and spare detailing emphasises the building’s clean lines which are further enhanced by the fine materials used – Coromandel Tonalite on the ground floor, with quartz sand plaster render abve and bronze doors and windows.

Some important original features survive on the interior, including the Te Wharo marble (with relief sculpture) in the entry foyer and the main stair lined with marble and glass blocks and a handrail of bronze, glass and walnut, as well as parts of the general manager’s office on the sixth floor which retain original timber panelling, joinery and hardware.

A large and somewhat incongruous three storey rooftop addition, designed by Athfield Architects, was constructed in 1998 by the new building owners, Norwich Union, to capitalise on the relatively valuable airspace above the building.

Departmental Building

Once the largest office building in the city, the Departmental Building has eight principal stories and covers the greater part of its block. It was designed by the Government Architect John Mair in a streamlined but restrained Moderne style that is highly compatible with the adjoining State Insurance building. It is supported on a reinforced concrete primary structure and finished with a flat roof terrace above which simple profiled metal forms contain lift overruns and mechanical equipment. The visual bulk of the building is greatly ameliorated by the plan form which has a recessed central bay on Stout Street contained between two curved “book-ends” at either corner of the building.

Although the design is essentially very functional and is quite uncompromising for that, it is has architectural distinction for its careful proportions, highlighted by the gracefully rounded “book-ends” and the sleek horizontal lines generated by the interleaving of the long unbroken spandrels and the regularly spaced bronze windows which follow elegantly around the curves. The base is faced with granite, the upper parts with modern composite stone panels; this use of materials reflects the palette of materials on the neighbouring State Insurance building.

The main entrance is in the centre of the building is highlighted with a tall sculpted pediment feature rising above the roof level and centred on the façade (designed to be seen from afar). Some original internal features, including stairwells, remain. The Departmental Building forms a prominent and significant part of the Stout Street streetscape.

Wellesley Club

Backing on to the Departmental Building –  but not on Stout Street itself –  is the Wellesley Club, a dignified masonry building constructed in 1926 for one of Wellington’s most prestigious gentlemen’s clubs. The building retains its original use today, 80 years later, although in a rather less exclusive manner. It is the only building outside the immediate boundary of Stout Street included in the heritage area, but its dignified presence and longstanding association with the civil and judicial services makes an important contribution to the qualities of the heritage area.

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Stout Street contains a nationally important collection of heritage buildings. 

The Stout Street Heritage Area has high streetscape value with several key vistas remaining relatively unchanged since the 1940s, particularly the southern entrance to the street and the long view from Lambton Quay to the Railway Station. This is one of the few places in the city that has remained relatively constant, as demonstrated by its use in numerous ‘period’ TV commercials and films. It is an established visual feature in the townscape of the northern end of the city, familiar to generations of Wellingtonians. The key buildings form an important transition of scale in the urban setting between the condensed “high city” of Lambton Quay and The Terrace and the comparatively low and open Parliamentary precinct. The heritage buildings in the heritage area represent the work of a number of important architects and are architecturally notable for their innovative construction and uniformly high quality of design, materials and workmanship. Many of the materials and the craftsmanship employed in these buildings are irreplaceable. The interplay between the richly detailed old buildings and the rather more austere modern buildings enriches and enlivens the streetscape and gives it a very distinctive character. The area has a strong cohesiveness of purpose, building quality and history.

The Stout Street Heritage Area is of particular importance to Wellington as it contains a nationally significant group of heritage buildings, most of which were built by central government. The key buildings have very high historic significance for their longstanding association with the government and for their role in Wellington’s economic, financial, legal and political history. The area is historically important as it demonstrates the role of central government in Wellington’s transition from provincial to national capital in the 19th century. It shows how government helped drive the city’s progress and physical formation through reclamation and then the steady development of that land for various governmental purposes, including the courts, civil service and other agencies. This activity established the pattern of this part of the central city and it remains largely the same today, although the government does not build new inner-city office accommodation anymore and a number of Government buildings are now in private hands.

The heritage area is set on land created by pre-1900 reclamation and is likely to have high archaeological value.

The Stout Street heritage area is of particular importance to Wellington as it contains a nationally significant group of heritage buildings, most of which were built by central government. This means that the area is a focus of regional and national identity. The buildings also have social and economic significance for the government’s past and present role as the city’s major employer. The area is likely to be held in high public esteem, for its association with New Zealand’s central government and judiciary. The individual heritage buildings in the heritage area have date from the late 19th to mid-20th century and contribute to the sense of place and continuity of the Wellington CBD.

The heritage area contains a unique collection of buildings that are associated with New Zealand’s government, administration and judiciary. It has a high degree of heritage integrity and there are buildings that have retained their original uses, such as the Wellesly Club and Departmental Building, and others that have retained a relatively consistent use, such as State Insurance or the Public Trust building, which are still largely used by government agencies.

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