A critical aspect of the Waikato Regional Theatre project is ensuring that heritage elements from the former Hamilton Hotel are preserved and re-used.
The largest and most striking example at this point is the retention of the Hotel’s neo-classical street façade, the engineering of which was explained in our last issue.
Less obvious have been the careful removal and storage of a range of internal components from the century-old building, so they can be reinstated in the new complex, including more items and materials than Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga requires to be saved.
Graham Boswell is in charge of the removal, storage and reinstatement of heritage items from the Hotel. A long-time Fosters Construction man, his main role is the site’s Traffic and Logistics Manager, so he’s the face you’re most likely to see around the front gate and on the street outside.
Graham Boswell with a fibre-glass roof corner from the Hamilton Hotel, NOT a heritage item.
“Everyone reckons I was around when this heritage stuff was being put in, but I’m not quite that old!”
“We reckon its the first heritage façade that has been retained in the Waikato,” says Graham.
Artist's impression of the heritage staircase in the new building.
The grand central staircase from the Hotel, including its balustrades and wall linings, will be one thing visitors to the street-front offices won’t miss – it will be going back into the very same location from where it was removed.
The fittings, linings and built-in furniture from the former Queen’s Suite, where the late Queen and Prince Philip stayed on 30 December 1953, will be carefully put back together - the aim is for the resulting space to be one of the new Theatre’s dressing rooms.
Other items being saved at the direction of Heritage NZ include heavy timber doors, decorative ceiling ‘roses’ made from fibrous plaster, Union Jack-design door windows and overlights, and a range of leadlight windows.
As well as those things that were legally required to be saved, Fosters has also retained various window frames and surrounds. A container’s worth of original timber will be re-used – the rimu will be turned into tongue-and-groove flooring and the kauri into panelling.
The following pictures show some of these items in their current storage, awaiting their return to the new Waikato Regional Theatre.
