1960s: Brutalism in Nelson
March 30, 2019
By AHNZ
1960s photo shows stark contrast between Old and New Government Buildings in Nelson. Between 1860s Jacobethan and 1960s Brutalism.Being government buildings they are both lying to us using architecture as the medium. If you were a rate-payer in Nelson which of these buildings would you buy a drink if it flirted with you?
One has dignity and projects strength by daring to be fragile and gilded. The other building sneers authority and projects strength by being un-expressive bomb-proof concrete staring down on the ratepayers like a giant bulldozer blade.
(I think I’m showing my bias there)
Post Office
Here, on the left, we have Nelson’s central post and telegraph building, est. 1906. This red Edwardian building looks as if it could be the red logo for Heritage New Zealand and perhaps it would be were it not demolished in 1970. Again, being a government building it is naturally telling New Zealanders whatever it thinks they want to hear in ‘current year’.
Well, in the Edwardian, New Zealanders wanted buildings that looked like a page of Edward Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1. sounded. “Thine equal laws, by Freedom gained, Have ruled thee well and long; By Freedom gained, by Truth maintained, Thine Empire shall be strong.” We were proud of our Empire, of which we were citizens, and touching base again with the English Enlightenment by reviving sentiments and architecture like this post office.
Surviving uncles and brothers of Nelson’s euthanised Post Office include the Auckland Town Hall, Britomart, the Auckland Ferry Building, Invercargill Water Tower, Dunedin Railway Station, Parliamentary Library, and Seddon House (Hokitika.) These are treasured. Apparently, Nelson’s politicians had all of their heritage tied and branded and corralled into Founders Park in the 1970s and sent the rest to the rubble works.
“The brutalist-style seven-floor Ministry of Works-designed structure – which opened in 1983 and was bought by the council in 1991 – has continued to draw strong opinions, insults and jokes.”“It was a stark contrast to the former Post Office on the same site, an elegant 1906 two-storey red-brick building with a slate roof and a domed clock tower. It was demolished in 1970 because of earthquake concerns – a loss that seems hard to imagine happening today.”“Members of the public at the meeting were not as convinced…The committee opted for the rods, and that seemed to be the extent of the public consultation.”- The brutal truth of how Nelson ended up with derided gateway building, Warren Gamble, Stuff (Mar 2021)
If our heroic and civic turn-of-the-century citizens liked gingerbread in their architecture, the Brutalist 1970s was a cup of cold concrete. The new Post Office was laid like a brick egg from a bulldozer. Non-consentual fertilising activity was performed by gang committee. The former clock was incorporated impaled atop a giant milk bottle sticking out of a giant milk crate to top it all off.
Nelson Civic House, as the old post office is now called, resembles government’s treatment of New Zealanders in the 1970s. We were not who we had used to be.
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Ref. 1969: Nelson Provincial Council Buildings Demolished; AHNZ
3 thoughts on "1960s: Brutalism in Nelson"
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I agree with all the brutal truth written.
As a retired Project Manager I am of the opinion that the Nelson council building is the most ugly building I have ever seen . So ugly it’s almost cool . Please do not show pictures of it again .
Copy that. The next in line for a post is likely to be the Central Library at Canterbury University. If that’s OK with you.