Heritage building use celebrated

Dunedin's heritage buildings and the people who safeguard their futures were celebrated last night.

The inaugural Dunedin Heritage Re-Use Awards at Wall St recognised architectural redevelopments which have given heritage buildings a new lease of life.

"We wanted to identify barriers to economic re-use of heritage buildings and overcome those barriers," Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull said.

"We also wanted to recognise the owners who have done the hard yards in re-using buildings. It is challenging to re-use old buildings, but the results are far in excess of what you can get in new buildings."

The premier prize, the Dunedin re-use award, was given to the redevelopment of the Diesoline cafe and BrandAid marketing agency premises, in the former Budget Print building at 7 Bath St.

The student design competition award, based on a theoretical redevelopment design for Garrison Hall, was won by Samuel Brown.

The aim of the competition was to demonstrate how imagination and creativity could give heritage buildings a new life suited to modern uses.

The awards were an initiative of Dunedin City Council heritage policy planner Glen Hazelton, to recognise and encourage heritage building redevelopments.

The judges were DCC councillor Kate Wilson, New Zealand Historic Places Trust Otago/Southland manager Owen Graham, New Zealand Institute of Architects Otago manager Simon Parker, DCC property manager Robert Clark and Octa Associates Ltd project manager David Booth.

Results were: Dunedin re-use award, BrandAid/Diesoline, Bath St; Highly commended, Arrow House, Moray Pl, and Natural History New Zealand, Princes St; Student design competition award, Samuel Brown; Octa special award, Jessica White.