A Shop in Napier

The city of Napier, on the North Island of New Zealand, was severely damaged by an earthquake which struck the Hawkes Bay area on the morning of 3rd February 1931. Within the next few years a lot of the city was rebuilt in the style of the day, Art Deco.

This is a typical shop in Napier that may not appear in any of the books but it shows how modest buildings in Napier took on the deco style. The colours are a bit Miami but in a seaside town, albeit in the Southern Hemisphere, they work.

Each February an Art Deco Weekend is held in Napier. The programme for the 2010 event has been posted on the Napier Art Deco Trust website.

Hildebrandt Building, Napier

The Hildebrandt Building in Napier was designed by local architect Louis Hay.

The building itself is very plain but it has a panel with a wonderful wave motif along the facade and the New Zealand and German flags at either end.

The flags are repeated side by side on the corner of the building above door along with 1933, the date of construction.

Ranui Flats, Napier

This may not be the most picturesque view of the Ranui Flats on Marine Parade in Napier but it does clearly show the driveway in the middle of the building leading through to the parking area behind. It reminds me of much earlier buildings which often had stables or a yard out the back and therefore required a large opening like this to allow horse-drawn carriages access. Ranui Flats date from 1938 so this is a nice throw-back from the Car Age.

Marine Parade, Napier

When Napier was rebuilt after the 1931 earthquake, The Marine Parade area was developed as an outdoor entertainment area.

The Council Architect, J T Watson designed the New Napier Arch (right) in 1938 as a celebration of the new city. Located opposite the Masonic Hotel and the war memorial it marks the entrance to the Marine Parade Gardens.

Watson also designed the Soundshell which sits in the place where local architect Louis Hay had proposed an ambitious Entertainment Centre that straddled Marine Parade. Peter Shaw & Peter Hallett have reproduced the watercolour rendered drawing of the proposed centre in their wonderful book Art Deco Napier - Styles of the Thirties.

The concrete area in front of the shell was once an ice skating rink and the somewhat faded art deco zig-zag design of inlaid concrete that surrounded it can still be seen (at least in 1999 it was still visible).

It must have been amazing in the 1930s.

Boys' High School, Napier

The Napier Boys' High School website is tantalising when it states 'Originally built in brick in 1926, the school has now been fully redeveloped in the Deco style, in keeping with the Napier City theme' but gives no further details relating to the architect or the dates o the remodelling.

In any case, we can get a taste of the style from this view of the entrance gates to the school and the driveway lined with palm trees behind and only imagine the deco splendor enjoyed by the schoolboys while they study.

Gladstone Chambers, Napier

The Gladstone Chambers in Tennyson Street, Napier is a simple single storey building like many constructed immediately following the 1931 earthquake.

The Art Deco Inventory compiled by the Art Deco Trust and Napier City Council lists Finch & Westerholm as the architects with construction being completed in 1932.

Gladstone Chambers has very little decoration along the roofline, normally a mainstay of Art Deco buildings. The lettering in the name, set on the facade, is very simple with a decorative row of semi-circles interspersed with pendant shapes.

Above the doorway and each of the two windows there is a more complex design consisting of rounded shapes layered with two sizes of triangles.

The building also features a decorative grill on the window above the door.

Yet another arrangement of geometric shapes provide the decoration in the recessed rectangular panels under the windows.

At the very base of the building the vents at footpath level are very stylish and as can be see in the photo below are placed below the windows according to the deco rule of three.

Geon Art Deco Weekend, Napier

We had an horrific day in Victoria yesterday (http://www.theage.com.au/national/death-toll-rises-from-bushfires-20090208-80jv.html). Hottest Melbourne day on record, 46.4C, hotter in other places in the State and the worst day of bushfires possibly since 'Black Friday' on 13th January 1939. 100s of houses have been destroyed and 25 people confirmed dead which expectations that the toll will rise.

My best wishes go out to all those who have been affected and their families and friends.

It got me thinking of positive stories that have come from disasters such as this and then an email arrived in my inbox reminding me of the Geon Art Deco Weekend in Napier.

Shortly after a quarter to eleven on the morning of Tuesday 3rd February 1931 a devastating earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter Scale hit the North Island of New Zealand about 15 or 20 kilometres north of the city of Napier.

Many buildings were destroyed in Napier and the nearby town of Hastings. 258 people died in the two towns and the surrounding district. A memorial in Napier honours the memory of those who died.

An Earthquake Relief Fund was established by the New Zealand Prime Minister and architects based in Napier such as J A Louis Hay and others from around the country assisted in the rebuilding of the city. By January 1933, the city was able to hold a carnival to celebrate the new Napier.

Now, the third weekend of February sees Napier host the annual Art Deco Weekend. This year the events run from Tuesday 17th to Sunday 22nd so obviously they use a different definition of weekend in New Zealand.

It is probably more to the point that the Art Deco Weekend has become so popular over its 21 years that they can't fit all the events into a two-day weekend. I suspect it won't be long before it becomes Art Deco Week.

Link: Geon Art Deco Weekend

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Bushfire Update - Monday 9th February 2009

As more news comes to hand it is clear that Saturday 7th February 2009 is one of the worst days ever for Victoria. The death toll is horrendous and the number of people who have lot their homes and all their possessions heartbreaking. The towns of Marysville and Kinglake have all but been wiped out. The response from the wider community has been fantastic and I hope something positive will eventually come from this harshest reminder of nature's devastating power.

We are custodians of this planet and it will survive in some form for a very long time, but will we.

The link for the latest news on the bushfires is http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/bushfires/

The Red Cross have set up an appeal and are taking donations online through their webite - www.redcross.org.au/.

Louis Hay's Office, Napier

The slender red brick building is the office that Napier architect Louis Hay built for himself after his previous office was damaged in the devastating 1931 earthquake.

The windows are interesting and the dark layer of bricks grounds the building but otherwise there is little or no decoration until the roofline.

Centred on the building is an arrangement of lines, squares, circles and finally a diamond bearing the year 1932. You can see these elements in various combinations in Hay's buildings all over Napier.

Above this detail rows of bricks are stepped back creating subtle interest.

The columns are also capped with decoration. Thin smooth rendered sections, painted a light cream or green colour, narrow the brick columns as the approach the sky. A series of twelve bricks are spaced up the column jutting out from the flat surface. The whole column is then topped with a green slab.

Masters Lodge, Napier

The Masters Lodge sits on the hills overlooking Napier on New Zealand's east coast.

Originally built in the late 1800s it was made-over in the 1930s.

I love these leadlight windows depicting orange trees in full fruit and grape vines across the cenral panes.

Modernist Houses in Marewa

The 1931 earthquake that brought so much destruction to the Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand also created a new suburb.

A large area of marshy land near Napier was raised by the quake and became dry land. In the mid to late 1930s, the area was opened up for residential development and became the suburb of Marewa, 'raised from the sea'.

A lot of the houses in Marewa were built as single storey modernist buildings. Often rendered and painted white or a pale colour with simple stylised decoration. Low walls were also common, setting the boundary of the property without obscuring the house.

The house above has very simple geometric decoration on the corners near the roofline and a fantastic lamp in the front garden styled as a lighthouse.

Another house has a stepped roofline but the central section steps down meaning the central section of the house is lower than each side. Often the central section is the highest point of a building.

A line just below the roofline with a stepped kink at the corners is just about the only decoration although it does continue around the side of the house.

The window sills have been painted to match this line creating a nice effect. The colour is also included around the base of the building effectively grounding the house on its lot.

The house shown below is my favourite. It is a handsome building with a curved central section at the front with other rooms within the house stepped back retaining their rectangular shape.

A series of simple, triangle based, elements provide the house with its decorative signature. The door is recessed into a deep porch and the steps in front of the door, although not visible in my photo, sit out from the front of the house taking up half the width of the path leading from the driveway.

The owners have done a fantastic job with this house right down to the topiary near the mailbox and marking the path to the front door.

When you go to Napier make sure you set aside enough time to have a leisurely stroll through the art deco suburb of Marewa.

Masson House, Napier

The city of Napier, on New Zealand's North Island, is a deco lovers delight. Most of the town was destroyed by an earthquake in 1931 and the subsequent rebuilding program was mostly completed in Art Deco style.

Masson House was designed by E A Williams in 1931. It is a simple elegant two storey building with row of shopfronts at street level. The upper level has a series of windows with plain, almost old-fashioned decoration. Certainly the central window, which has the most decoration appears to have come from an earlier period.

The central section of the facade sits higher than the symetrical wings. Where these two elements join, there are three steps down in height but also three steps back from the street.

The most deco elements are the relief panels on each wing with a geometric wave pattern and the name of the building on the central section in lovely stylised lettering.

Second Most Beautiful McDonald's in the World

Yesterday I wrote about the most beautiful McDonald's in the world so today I thought I would show you the second most beautiful.

It is in Taradale, New Zealand and it is one of only two Art Deco McDonald's that I know of.

Like Clifton Hill, it was originally a pub, the Taradale Hotel.

The hotel originally openned in 1869 as the Duke of Edinburgh but was destroyed by fire in 1904. Rebuilt, it suffered a worse fate in the 1931 earthquake which devastated the Hawke's Bay area. Like many buildings in nearby Napier and Hastings, the pub was again rebuilt, this time in the style of the times, Art Deco.

In 1997, McDonald's were persuaded by the Art Deco Trust to retain the building and convert it to a restaurant rather than demolish it.

I believe one of the arguments used to persuade McDonald's was the fact that the building is included in Art Deco Napier: Styles of the thirtiesa very popular book by Peter Shaw & Peter Hallett which has undergone several reprints.

Did McDonald's want a picture of the old pub with a caption describing its demise or a picture their new Taradale restaurant. Sometimes the commercial argument is the clincher when trying to preserve and reuse older buildings.

Inside some of the deco features have survived including the cornice and this wonderful ceiling decoration (shown above).

Daily Telegraph Building, Napier

The Daily Telegraph Building was built in 1932 to designs by architect E A Williams. It is a symmetrical two storey building with a central section sporting a small balcony and topped with a flagpole.

The balcony has an iron balustrade with a geometric pattern which reminds me of some of the decoration on the Hoover Building in west London. The rest of the building is beautifully decorated. Columns between each window are crowned with a complex arrangement of curves and arches separated from the smooth render of the columns by a zig-zag band.

A repeating pattern of short vertical blocks are separated with larger blocks at regular intervals. The name of the newspaper which occupies the building is spelt out in large letters across the whole façade. The decoration continues inside around the cornice of the main rooms and at the top of the internal supporting columns and interior lights.

The Daily Telegraph Building is a great Art Deco building and one of the highlights of Napier, New Zealand’s Art Deco city.

Masonic Hotel, Napier

I was flicking around the Foxtel sports channels this morning and noticed that the 3rd Test, New Zealand v England is currently being played at McLean Park, Napier, so I thought I'd write about the Masonic Hotel on Marine Parade.

The hotel was built in 1932 to plans by Wellington architect WJ Prouse. It is a long two storey building with a simple wooden pergola on the overhanging balcony. The name Masonic spelt out in a typically deco font.

Around the corner is a side entrance marked with a large piece of geometric decoration at the roofline and a glass canopy sheltering the doorway with Masonic spelt out in a joined series of stepped leadlight windows. A few years ago a delivery truck damaged the canopy but I believe it has been repaired.

The Masonic's website (it is easy enough to find in your favourite search engine) proclaims Napier's Largest Original Art Deco Hotel and there is a certain deco feel to the website but otherwise I found it very disappointing. There are no photos of the building or details of its history.

The Napier Art Deco Trust site on the other hand has a photo of the hotel on their home page but the hotel doesn't even have a link back to them.

The Masonic Hotel is a great building, a landmark building and a good place for a beverage after a hot day at the cricket or a sightseeing in New Zealand's Art Deco city of Napier.

Halsbury Chambers, Napier

The Halsbury Chambers in Napier, New Zealand's Art Deco city, is a modest single storey building. Located in Tennyson Street, the building is rich in decoratioin, proudly displaying its name above the entrance. It was built is 1932, the year after most of Napier was destroyed by a major earthquake that struck early on the morning of Feb 3, 1931.

To me the design echos an earlier time but the arrangement of rectangular decoration and the simple stepped roofline give it a distinctive deco feel. I was lucky the day I took this photo as the sportscar makes it difficult to date the photo. Possibly it was taken shortly after the chambers opened unless you notice the head of the parking metre lurking in the shadows of the doorway. The photo was actually taken in Feb 1999 when Napier hosted the 5th World Congress on Art Deco.