The efforts of developers, along with the Dunedin City Council’s funding for heritage, have breathed new life into some of Dunedin’s best heritage buildings. David Loughrey examines three successful projects.
At one point a run-down shell of its former self, the Standard Building now stands as an elegant edifice in the Exchange heritage sector.
A cafe, the Standard Kitchen, has opened in the street front; upstairs is Schaartje Barber .
Owner Ted Daniels says work is
under way in the rear of the building. He is unsure of a completion date, as that depends on finding tenants.
"Once I have several tenants lined up, then I can fast-forward things."
Inside, the building would be a combination of office space and apartments.
He is also planning to build another storey on the building at the rear of the site, which will be used as apartments, including an outside area.
Mr Daniels says he has applied for resource consent for the extra storey, which will not be visible from Princes St.
The Standard Building was designed in Renaissance revival style by architects Mason & Wales and completed in 1875.
It began life with the Standard Fire and Marine Insurance Company occupying the ground floor, before that firm moved to new premises in High St in 1884.
A restaurant, Cafe Cecil, opened in the building in 1900, a fishmonger outlet was added in 1904 and in about 1925 another fishmonger, William Stewart, took over that business.
Stewart’s Ltd — later Stewart’s Fish Supply — continued to trade on the site’s ground floor until 1995.
The former Cafe Cecil became the Canton Cafe in 1961.
The Canton was bought by Kee and Sanny Young in 1978, who moved the business, now called the New Canton, to the opposite side of Princes St, before closing it in 2013.
Standard Building
201 Princes St
Built: 1875.
Architect: Mason & Wales.
Formerly: Cafe, fishmonger.
Future: Cafe, office space and apartments.
DCC funding: $66,000 from 2010 heritage fund, $9300 from 2013-14 central city heritage re-use grant.
Dunedin City Council heritage fund budgets
Heritage fund: $200,000 plus $100,000 for Dominican Priory this year only.
Next year’s budget: $200,000.
Central city heritage re-use grant: $100,000 this year and next year.
Heritage rates relief grant: $70,000 this year and next year.
Heritage rates freeze grant budget: $100,000 for Distinction Hotel this year and next year.
Here’s to the future
The Donald Reid building redevelopment has continued the striking heritage renewal stretching its tendrils along Vogel St and surrounds.
The building is owned by New Zealand Heritage Properties, and the company’s principal archaeologist, Sheryl Cawte, says the atrium section at the front of the building is in place, but has to be sealed and other details finished.
One tenant is already installed upstairs, and a second is moving in next year.
The two commercial tenants will be using it as office space, and the interior has been specifically designed for them.
Mrs Cawte expects the building to be completed mid-next year.
The building was occupied by the Harbour Board from 1884 to 1899, when the board was considering issues including a proposed harbour bridge, the strike of 1890, the construction of new wharves, and the retrenchment that came with the long depression.
Occupants of the Jetty St buildings after 1899 included the Government Shipping Office, and the grain and seed merchants Ronaldson & Farquharson.
From 1923 to 1974 the building was the head office of Donald Reid & Company, one of Otago’s largest stock and station agencies. Extensive interior and exterior remodelling in the Art Deco style was designed by the architects Stone & Sturmer in 1936.
The remodelling of Victorian buildings in Art Deco and emerging modernist styles was popular in Dunedin from the early 1930s onwards.*
* Information from builtindunedin.comOtagoHarbourBoardoffices (aka Donald Reid building)
Corner Vogel St and Jetty St
Built: 1884
Architect: F. W. Petre
Formerly: Harbour board, Government Shipping Office, grain and seed merchants Ronaldson & Farquharson, Donald Reid & Company.
Future: Commercial tenants.
DCC funding: $11,000 from central city heritage re-use grant 2012, $10,000 from 2015 heritage fund.
Glorydays
The Terminus Hotel building has brought a pioneering structure near the reclaimed Dunedin foreshore back to its late-19th century glory.
Bought by heritage developer Stephen Macknight in 2014, the former Gresham Hotel’s brightly painted exterior has been gradually restored and the inside stripped back and converted to eight apartments; featuring original ceiling and brick work, they could be leased for a mix of short and long-stay accommodation.
The original Oregon pine window frames from the top floor have been retained, new double-glazed windows added, and the kauri and rimu ceilings of the first floor exposed and varnished.
Mr Macknight says the interiors of the top two floors of the former hotel, built in 1880, have been completed.He says the building was designed by John Burnside, an architect who worked for Mason & Wales.
Burnside designed parts of the Otago Museum, and was at the time a prominent architect in Dunedin.
A July 1880 Otago Daily Times report on the hotel said it was being built by "Mr Philp, who is so well known in connection with the Shamrock hotel".
The new hotel then included a ground floor with a bar, two parlours, a kitchen and a "handsome railway waiting room".
Mr Macknight says the building was originally built as the Railway Terminus Hotel, due to its proximity to the original Dunedin railway station where the Toitu Settlers Museum is now.
"It was the first building in that area, so it stood out on its own."
The building operated as a hotel its whole life until early this century, and had many different owners over that time.
Terminus Hotel building
Corner of Cumberland and Rattray Sts
Built: 1880.
Architect: John Burnside.
Formerly: Hotel.
Future: Apartments and commercial.
DCC funding: $20,000 from 2015 heritage fund.
