Waikato Times: New ‘Brickies’ as bouquets at city business awards

Originally published in the Waikato Times, Friday 22 August 2023.

By Stephen Ward

The bricks are a connection between past and present in the CBD, Hamilton Central Business Association general manager Vanessa Williams says. Photo: MARK TAYLOR / WAIKATO TIMES.

They’re a bit of a contrast to the shiny gold of an Oscar, but a slice of Hamilton’s past.

Half-bricks from the old Hamilton Hotel are set to be handed out at this year’s CBD awards for businesses in the central city and could be called “the Brickies”.

Hamilton Central Business Association general manager Vanessa Williams said her team had been looking for a new material to make the awards out of, after using wood last year.

“We thought, wouldn’t it be great to use something iconic that’s from the Hamilton central city?”

They came up with the idea of using bricks from the old Hamilton Hotel, built in the late 1800s, which had previously been on from the site where the new Waikato Regional Theatre is being built.

The site of the Waikato Regional Theatre development last month. Photo: CHRISTEL YARDLEY / WAIKATO TIMES.

“It’s a connection to old and new Hamilton,” Williams said.

“It’s using these bricks that have been around for well over 100 years from a place that had so much to celebrate and recognise.”

Apart from their historical role “these bricks are also a nod to the new space that’s being created” with the regional theatre.

Construction company Fosters had been happy to have “a bunch of bricks brought down in a wheelbarrow” to the association’s Garden Place office.

The new half-brick trophies for handing out to award winners in November. Photo: MARK TAYLOR / WAIKATO TIMES.

The heavy bricks have been sliced in half and feature metallic labels providing awards details for the ceremony on 1 November.

Williams said that at this stage the handing out of the half bricks was set to be a one-off.

As for what will be used next year, “it’s a blank slate at this stage”.

Williams said the newly minted awards didn’t formally have a particular name but she did like the thought of “winning a Brickie”.

The annual CBD awards are designed to recognise and celebrate business success in the central city.