BNZ Harbour Quays

BNZ Harbour Quays was a large, award-winning office building on the waterfront in Wellington, New Zealand. It was built in 2009 and leased to the Bank of New Zealand, but suffered earthquake damage in the 2013 Seddon earthquake and the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake. The building was demolished in 2019.

Harbour Quays project

The BNZ Harbour Quays building on the waterfront in Wellington was built by the port company, CentrePort, as part of its Harbour Quays project. The Harbour Quays project was launched in July 2005 with the aim of developing CentrePort's land along Waterloo Quay, between Bunny St and the Sky Stadium, into a business park with office buildings, retail and recreational spaces. CentrePort said there was space for up to 12 multi-storey buildings to house 4000 workers.[1] The first new building in the project was Statistics House, completed in 2005 and demolished in 2018 following earthquake damage.[2]

On 31 October 2006, Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) chairman Kerry McDonald signed a property development agreement with CentrePort, who would construct a large office building at 60 Waterloo Quay and lease it to the BNZ.

Design and construction

BNZ Harbour Quays was designed by Jasmax Ltd and constructed by Fletcher Construction on CentrePort land, with building largely completed by 2009.[6] Beca were the engineers for the building, which was 29 m high with foundations going down 15 m.[7] It had 20500 m2 of lettable space, of which 18700 m2 was leased to the BNZ.[8] About 1,100 BNZ staff were relocated to Harbour Quays from five separate locations in the city centre. Jasmax architect John Dennehy said the building was a Modernist design shaped by its location on reclaimed land, its purpose and environmental requirements. It consisted of three blocks six storeys high, separated by two atriums. The atriums had stairs and bridges to link the three blocks, and were designed "to create a greater sense of connection and increased opportunities for interaction by building users".[8] The atriums were part of the building's ventilation system and allowed more natural light into office spaces. The building was designed so that it would gain a five-star Green Building Council certified status, and ultimately gained a six-star Office Interiors rating, the first building in New Zealand to do so.[9]

The front of the building had façades with aluminium fins that created a wavy pattern, with lighting that dimmed and brightened every minute to suggest the ebb and flow of the tide. The façade on the north side was covered in aluminium panels to stop heat getting in, and the cladding on the south side was designed to reduce heat loss. The building had water tanks to collect rainwater, waterless urinals and a lighting system that would reduce lighting use in daylight and turn off lights when a room was not being used. There were 30 car parks and 75 parking spaces for bicycles.[8] BNZ Harbour Quays won awards in three categories — commercial, sustainable and interior — at the New Zealand Institute of Architects Wellington Architecture Awards in 2009. Jurors praised its ecological and social considerations and strong sculptural elements, with the convenor saying it was "like a mini city".[10]

Aftermath

In 2018, Radio New Zealand asked Wellington City Council if they had obtained any engineering advice about the design of BNZ Harbour Quays before its construction. The Council responded that it had hired structural engineers Spencer Holmes to review Beca's design, and that Spencer Holmes' concerns had been addressed. Spencer Holmes refuted the Council's statement, saying they had questions about structural steel calculations, thickness of the concrete floors and how they were held up, and how the building's frame would perform in an earthquake. Spencer Holmes said that in 2007 they had withdrawn from reviewing Beca's design because their questions were not answered fully.[19] Professor John Mander had then peer-reviewed the design.[20]

In 2019, BNZ sued the Wellington City Council for over $100 million for negligence, for granting building consents and issuing code compliance certificates when there were concerns about the building's design.[21][22][20] The City Council then filed a claim against Beca, but Beca denied any liability. The High Court would not dismiss the claim against Beca, so Beca appealed to the Court of Appeal, but that Court upheld the High Court's decision.[21][23] The dispute between Beca and Wellington City Council was heard by the Supreme Court in 2024, with the court dismissing Beca's legal defence that the Building Act limited civil proceedings arising from building work to only be heard within 10 years of the work being undertaken. The Supreme Court ruled that if Wellington City Council loses its case against the BNZ, it may still ask Beca for a contribution towards BNZ's claim.[24]

The failure of BNZ Harbour Quays, Statistics House and other Wellington buildings that were damaged in the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake led to revision of seismic assessment guidelines. The Ministry of Business, Industry and Employment (MBIE) released The Seismic Assessment of Existing Buildings, commonly known as the Red Book, in July 2017. These guidelines provide "a technical basis for engineers to carry out seismic assessments of existing buildings".[25] Section C5 deals with assessment of multi-storey concrete buildings. In 2018, section C5 was revised because understanding of building performance in the Kaikōura earthquake had changed. The revised section is known as the Yellow Book or Yellow Chapter. Assessment using the Yellow Book can lead to different results from assessment using the Red Book, but only the Red Book has legal standing.[26][27] The differences in the two versions of the guidelines have led to confusion and frustration for building owners and engineers[28] and contributed to a shortage of commercial rental properties in Wellington, as renters demand seismically safe buildings.[29]

building type	Office
architectural style	Modernism
location	60 Waterloo Quay, Wellington, New Zealand
owner	CentrePort
coordinates	-41.27917°N, 174.78194°W
construction start date	2007
completion date	2009
demolished date	2019
height	29 m
floor count	6
main contractor	Fletcher Construction
architect	Jasmax
structural engineer	Beca Group
awards	NZIA Wellington Architecture Awards 2009

Harbour Quays project

Design and construction

2013 earthquake damage

2016 earthquake damage

Demolition

Aftermath

External links

References