The setting of Civic Centre is a complex one in that it includes the immediate setting of the square itself, a largely self-contained space, as well as the wider heritage area, which includes the MFC carpark and gardens, Ilott Green and the open space to the rear of the City Gallery. More broadly, the area is surrounded by a range of different settings, including the urban cityscapes to the south, west and north (Wakefield, Cuba, Mercer, Victoria and Harris Streets). To the east is the elevated piazza and City-to-Sea bridge, which presage the open space of the waterfront beyond the broad carriageway of Jervois Quay. Fine views of the waterfront buildings and open space, and beyond that the harbour, can be had from the piazza and the bridge, which emphasise the importance of the harbour’s proximity on the setting of the square.

The Civic Centre Heritage Area is a large city block bounded by streets on all sides – Jervois Quay, Harris, Victoria and Wakefield Streets. The heritage area contains a significant open public space that is bordered by the principal buildings. There are two buildings of high heritage value, one older building of heritage significance and two modern buildings that contribute to the character and quality of the open space and the Michael Fowler Centre.

The square itself is a particularly special public space in Wellington, formed for civic purposes by the closure of Mercer Street and the construction of an elevated outdoor piazza at the floor level of the former public library and the Town Hall. The square is framed and defined by the surrounding collection of civic buildings. The public use of the square reinforces the importance of the building collection and the buildings in turn emphasise the public role and form of the open space.

The master-plan for the Civic Centre was principally designed by a triumvirate of architects, led by Ian Athfield, in 1988, and is modelled on the European tradition of enclosed public piazzas. The Civic Centre was formally opened for public use in 1992. The area was quickly adopted by Wellingtonians as a centre of civic activities and is very popular as a meeting place and performance space.

The main open public space is defined by the surrounding buildings, which are of a variety of ages, scales and uses but which have strong commonalties of civic purpose and a shared civic history. These buildings are, from the south-east, the Michael Fowler Centre (1983), the Wellington Town Hall (1904), the Old Administration Building (1951), the New Administration Building (1991), the Wellington Public Library (1991) and the Civic Art Gallery (1938 and 1991); the City-To-Sea bridge leads out above Capital E (1991) and across Jervois Quay to the east to connect the Civic Centre to the waterfront and overlooks Ilott Green on the north-east corner of the area.

The principal landscape features of the Civic Centre are the square – the floor of which is set out in large-scale diamond patterns with coloured paving bricks – the ramp walls veneered in Oamaru stone, and a series of fountains and water features and planter and lawn areas adjoining the City Art Gallery and the new Administration Building. The changes in level between the surrounding streets and the square itself are managed with ramps and a variety of steps. The steps to the City to Sea bridge and the pyramid above Capital E are particularly distinctive elements and these complement the original metal nikau palm colonnade devised by Athfield Architects. The Civic Centre features prominent public artwork including the suspended Ferns by Neil Dawson (1998), Silent People by Chris Booth (1991), Prow and Capital by Matt Pine (1991), the Ralph Hotere light sculpture in the windows of the City Art Gallery and a wide selection of others.

The square is finished with a variety of contemporary street furniture, including the interesting ponga frond bollards and has a number of large directional signs that harmonise in style with other signs to be found around the central city.

The principal values of the Civic Centre are the high quality and generous proportion of the square, which facilitates a broad variety of uses, the degree of enclosure, shelter and sunlight afforded by the relatively low surrounding buildings and the qualities imparted to the edges of the open space by, in particular, the three principal heritage buildings.

The boundary of the heritage area is a straightforward one – the contiguous block of land physically bounded by Wakefield Street to the south, Jervois Quay to the east, Harris Street to the north and Victoria Street to the east. It includes all the buildings surrounding the square and the Michael Fowler Centre (MFC) as well as the present MFC car-park area and gardens, with a small extension over Jervois Quay to include the whole of the City-to-Sea bridge. Both the MFC car-park and Ilott Green have been included so that future development on those sites can be easily managed to protect the heritage values of Civic Square and its buildings and features. The entire extent of the City-to-Sea bridge is logically included, as there is little merit in protecting only the portion that roofs Capital E.

Michael Fowler Centre

Standing, half hidden, at the south-eastern corner of the square, the Michael Fowler Centre was commissioned with great despatch by then Mayor Michael Fowler on behalf of the Wellington City Council from Warren and Mahoney. The architects had just completed the Christchurch Town Hall, with which this building, perhaps unsurprisingly, has many similarities. With no design competition or formal tendering process, the completed plans were apparently readied in just six weeks.

Built around a structural concrete frame, the MFC has a singular design which, although vaguely Brutalist in detail, eludes simple stylistic description. Its external form largely follows the internal functions, a principle illustrated by the prominent buttressed prismatic rotunda of the auditorium, and is finished in hard materials – concrete, glass, marble in the entry area, and, most distinctively, stainless steel cladding around the first floor level of the building. Despite the heights of the main spaces, the building has quite squat proportions, perhaps engendered by the relatively low height of the ground floor.

As it was intended to demolish the existing Town Hall, the MFC was built very close to its eastern elevation, now the principal entrance to the Town Hall. Consequently, when the old Town Hall was retained, the two buildings were left uncomfortably close together, to the detriment of the townscape qualities of both. With the construction of the Civic Centre, in particular Capital E and the associated steps, lift, shade sails and water features, the larger part of the MFC is now masked from view from the Civic Centre. The most visible part is the auditorium rotunda which rises rather awkwardly above the line of the City-to-Sea bridge.

Although the MFC is a good concert venue, the combination of its singular styling, ungainly proportions, its particularly awkward location in relation to the Town Hall and its lack of ground-level presence on the square means that it effectively does not contribute to the values of the heritage area.

Wellington Town Hall

Joshua Charlesworth’s winning design for the Wellington Town Hall was a moderately exuberant Classical composition with Edwardian flourishes, complete with a very tall and prominent clock tower and elegant vertical proportions. The principal entrance was from Wakefield Street, sheltered under a massive Corinthian portico beneath the clock tower. Built of rendered masonry with a corrugated iron roof behind the parapets and timber joinery, the carefully composed neo-Classical exterior, designed much in the manner of contemporary English civic buildings, was complemented with rich decoration and high quality finishes on the interior as befitted a first-class civic facility.

In 1934 the clock tower and most of the high level decoration on the building was taken down as a precaution, following the experiences of the Napier earthquake. Further earthquake-risk amelioration measures were carried out in 1942.

A refurbishment programme completed in 1992 strengthened and altered the building, with the loss of the former Concert Chamber, Wellington’s finest men’s toilets, the use of the original main entrance and various other important original features. The main hall, organ, and eastern stair are the principal remaining heritage elements of the interior.

The close proximity of the MFC to what is now the main entrance is to the detriment of the townscape values of both buildings. Due to the elevated ground level in the square, the strong basalt base of the north façade is barely seen and the building consequently has a somewhat uneasy relationship with the ground on this side.

Nevertheless, this is the most important building on the square and is held in high public esteem. Both the care taken with the design and the civic importance of the building is strongly evident in its elegant proportions, patterns of window openings and mouldings and enrichments and the aspirations and pride of the city that built it are manifest in the carefully restrained exuberance of the design. This building makes a significant positive contribution to the qualities of the area.

Old Administration Building (Municipal Office Building - MOB)

The old administration building was finished in 1951 to a design by Page, Fearn and Haughton. Executed in a minimally detailed late Moderne style in rendered concrete with steel windows, it is the bulkiest building within the area, although this bulk is largely offset by the elegant vertical proportion and strong patterns of the windows which form the main feature of the façades. Its quite plain style exemplifies the aspirations of the 1950s public service to quiet order and efficiency while its solid construction and quality materials show a building designed to last.

Once at street level, the base of the building is now below the general level of the square, although the paved surface is set down locally around the building and the building’s plinth can still be seen as originally intended. There is strong evidence of the contemporary alterations carried out in conjunction with the Civic Centre. An incongruous modern entrance in the form of a glazed “bird’s beak” supported on mock Corinthian columns and holding a balcony adjoins the Town Hall on the left side, and a series of glazed tower forms sprouts from the top and right-hand side, containing building services and forming part of the transitional atrium between this building and the new Administration Building.

Despite the modern alterations, this building is scaled and proportioned such that it sits relatively comfortably with the adjacent Town Hall and makes a positive contribution to the qualities of the area. Its plain no-nonsense style gives it a stern formal presence that contrasts with and enhances the lively style of the Town Hall.

New Administration Building (Civic Administration Building – CAB)

This is one of the last Post-modern buildings to be erected in Wellington and was completed in 1992 to the design of architects Stephenson and Turner. The building is distinctive for its quite graceful curved plan form (derived from the master plan for the area and the pre-existing curve of Wakefield Street) and its relatively low scale which is appropriate to the area by providing a visual close to the western end of the open space while still allowing views to the taller city beyond. The building neatly closes the south-west corner of the square and complements the generally low scale of the other buildings. A large “sky-bridge”, finished in glossy black glass, once completed the curve by connecting the Administration Building with the new City Library building at high level. (It was found to be “earthquake-prone” and was demolished in 2014-15.) While the exterior finish of the building, with its over-scaled pastiche of mock classical details, heavy aluminium windows and pink colouration, is out of place with its more elegant and carefully considered neighbours, it is at least easy to overlook. This building makes a minor positive contribution to the heritage area and helps define the sweeping curve of the southwest corner of the Civic Centre.

 New City Library

The new City Library, a substantial concrete edifice, was completed in 1992 to a design by Athfield Architects. Although the building has residual Postmodernist traces, it has its own integrity and a style not easily defined. Its most distinctive element, as seen from the square, is the undulating glass curtain wall which, together with the adjoining reflecting pools and fountains, creates an interesting play of light around the north-west corner of the square. Above this, the main bulk of the building is set well back towards Victoria Street. This helps both to give the building an appropriate scale to the area and to make a visual transition to the taller buildings beyond.

The artificial nikau palm colonnade to the ramp at the north side of the building is continued around into the square itself and is one of the area’s most talked-about and well-known features. In contrast to the Civic Square elevation, the Victoria Street façade of the Library is a largely plain, concrete wall with a regular pattern of inset windows, relieved only by the large columned entrance way and arcade along the length of the elevation.

Although set very much in the corner of the square, this building makes a positive contribution to the values of the area.

City Art Gallery

The City Art Gallery was converted from the former Wellington Public Library to a design by Stuart Gardyne in 1991. Completed in 1936, it is a somewhat austere but imposing and dignified stripped Classical building, the sober style being entirely appropriate to its original purpose. The design was the result of a collaboration between the Auckland partnership of Gummer and Ford, and New Plymouth architects Messenger Taylor and Wolfe. The building has a concrete and steel primary structure, with the exterior rendered in coloured plaster and trimmed with bronze windows.

The building was originally elevated on a rise above Mercer Street and was approached up a broad flight of steps past extensive lawns. The construction of the square brought the ground level up to the base of the building, but its proportions are not affected and it retains an authentic relationship to the ground.

The building remained in its original use and essentially unaltered until its conversion. While significant parts of the original building remain, including the primary façade to the open space with its inscriptions, the original coloured plaster exterior finish, the original steel windows and on the interior the main staircase and associated marble dado panelling, a lot of the original interior finish was stripped away to create the necessary gallery spaces. Modern additions, including a café and service areas are clustered at the rear of the building and can be accessed from the long curving ramp from the Library running alongside Harris Street. These additions are finished in stone veneer and zinc, in contrast to, but compatible with, the original materials of the building.

This very formal building contributes a degree of gravitas to the square and makes a very important contribution to the values of the heritage area.

 City-to-Sea Bridge

One of the key concepts in developing the Civic Centre was the idea of creating a strong link between the city and the developing waterfront area. After much debate, the eventual solution adopted was that of a large pedestrian bridge, collaboratively designed by sculptor Para Matchitt and John Grey. The most prominent features of the bridge itself are Matchitt’s balustrade sculptures, cut out of wharf timbers.

The bridge lands on the square with a substantial flight of steps, flanked at the bottom by the two large Oamaru stone sculptures Prow and Capital by Matt Pine. Under the bridge lies the former Capital Discovery Place, originally an educational facility for children designed by Craig Craig Moller, now reconfigured as “Capital E”. The greenstone-capped split pyramid at the top of the steps sits over one of the main spaces of the former Capital Discovery Place and the windows within the split once provided an interesting view down into the activities in the building. Beyond the pyramid is an elevated lawn area to the south and a paved area leading on to the bridge proper to the north.

A lift gives access to the landward side of the bridge near the pyramid. The seaward end of the bridge lands at the edge of the lagoon with a series of ramps and stairs and it is appropriate for the heritage area to end here as well to incorporate the entire extent of the bridge.

The grand form of the steps from the square and the landmark pyramid gives this end of the bridge a high degree of importance in the design and use of the open space.

Ilott Green

The former Ilott Building, ostensibly an earthquake hazard,  was demolished in 1995. Various proposals for the redevelopment of the site failed to gain momentum following the demolition and it was instead re-formed in conjunction with the design of the Civic Centre as a small landscaped green.

The green is the only feature of the area that is not entirely bounded by buildings; it instead has a road edge at Jervois Quay. The green features the broken remaining lower walls of the Ilott Building and as the principal “soft” area of the area is a popular location for a wide variety of activities. Various development proposals, including a Conservatorium of Music, exist for this site.

Nearby to the green on Harris Street is the principal access to the main City Council car-park, a substantial underground affair extending under most of the open space of the square, a childcare centre mainly built under the ramp connecting the north side of the Library with the open space, and the entrance to the public car-park under the Library. Above this area is a further landscaped garden which meets in to the north-west corner of the City Art Gallery building.

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The Civic Centre heritage area has townscape value as the setting for the most important public open space in the central city – the Civic Square. The square has local landmark status and has become an established and familiar feature in Wellington. The space of the square is defined and framed by a heterogeneous collection of civic buildings of high importance to Wellington, particularly the two key heritage buildings – the Wellington Town Hall and City Art Gallery. Together with the other buildings, artwork and street furniture in the square, most of which contribute significantly to the aesthetic appeal of the square, they imbue this area with great historic and architectural value The building collection illustrates a wide variety of styles designed by a succession of important and well-known architects and offers an interesting insight into Wellington’s 20th century architectural history. The buildings have significant collective value for this role. The strength of this collection of buildings is greatly enhanced by the public use and recognition of the square and their role in surrounding streetscapes.

The Civic Centre heritage area has townscape value as the setting for the most important public open space in the central city – the Civic Square. The square has local landmark status and has become an established and familiar feature in Wellington. The space of the square is defined and framed by a heterogeneous collection of civic buildings of high importance to Wellington, particularly the two key heritage buildings – the Wellington Town Hall and City Art Gallery. Together with the other buildings, artwork and street furniture in the square, most of which contribute significantly to the aesthetic appeal of the square, they imbue this area with great historic and architectural value The building collection illustrates a wide variety of styles designed by a succession of important and well-known architects and offers an interesting insight into Wellington’s 20th century architectural history. The buildings have significant collective value for this role. The strength of this collection of buildings is greatly enhanced by the public use and recognition of the square and their role in surrounding streetscapes.

The Civic Centre Heritage Area is located on pre-1900 reclaimed land and is likely to have high archaeological value.

The square at the Civic Centre has, very quickly since its formal opening in 1992, become a place of great importance to Wellington City. As one of the largest single public areas in Wellington it is a very popular place for gatherings and events and is widely used by Wellingtonians and visitors alike. It has acquired very high social significance for this role. The Square has become an established and familiar feature in Wellington. It seems likely Wellingtonians will continue to use and identify with the square for generations to come and over time the whole square will accrue even greater heritage significance.

The square at the Civic Centre has, very quickly since its formal opening in 1992, become a place of great importance to Wellington City. As one of the largest single public areas in Wellington it is a very popular place for gatherings and events and is widely used by Wellingtonians and visitors alike. It has acquired very high social significance for this role. The Square has become an established and familiar feature in Wellington. It seems likely Wellingtonians will continue to use and identify with the square for generations to come and over time the whole square will accrue even greater heritage significance.

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