30 Jul 2024 Te Whare O Rehua Sarjeant Gallery
It will have been over two decades of fundraising and planning by the Sarjeant Gallery, its Trust Board and Whanganui District Council but on Saturday 9 November art enthusiasts in New Zealand and around the world will welcome the re-opening of one of the country’s foremost public art galleries and an iconic heritage building to boot – finally strengthened, restored and extended ready for another 100 years of performance, with a lot of help from the Contech team.
Te Whare o Rehua Sarjeant Gallery is located in the city of Whanganui on the North Island’s west coast. It first opened its doors in 1919 thanks to the generosity of local farmer and landowner Henry Sarjeant, who bequeathed £32,000 – more than NZ$70 million in today’s terms – “as a means of inspiration for ourselves and those who come after us”.
The gallery was built in a neo-classical Greek-cross style and clad in Oamaru stone. The building remains the most prominent and elegant sculptural feature on the city’s skyline. It’s also one of the country’s oldest purpose-built galleries and is identified on the New Zealand Heritage List/Ra¯rangi Ko¯rero as ‘of special or outstanding historical or cultural significance or value’.
There’s value too in the gallery’s nationally significant collection. It comprises over 9,000 pieces spanning 400 years of international and New Zealand art history – and was valued at NZ$30 million in 2019. The collection includes a wide range of media, from paintings and works on paper to photographs, sculptures, installations, ceramics and glass. It can be viewed through the gallery’s prize-winning digital portal Explore the Collection which is on sarjeant.org.nz.
Time for (urgent) change
Sadly, the building had to be mothballed in 2014 when it was discovered that its structure met just 5% of the new NZ Building Code and therefore posed a severe earthquake risk.
The situation was compounded by the fact that its basement, where most of the collection was held, lacked the environmental and temperature controls needed to protect the collection from cracking, flaking and warping – and that the lack of similar controls in the gallery spaces meant it didn’t meet the stringent requirements for attracting national and international touring exhibitions.
As a result of these findings the gallery’s staff, operations and collection were relocated to suitable temporary premises pending a resolution to the problems and, of course, an assessment of the associated costs.
After much debate and some delay, the redevelopment commenced in 2019. A new, sleekly modern wing designed by Warren and Mahoney extends from the rear of the gallery. It is called Te Pātaka o Tā Te Atawhai Archie John Taiaroa. This wing doubles the facility’s exhibition space and houses a state-of-the-art storage store for the Sarjeant collection, a classroom, events spaces, a café, shop and staff offices. It is joined to the strengthened and restored heritage gallery by a glass atrium and a magnificent carved totara waka which floats between the two buildings and acts as a walk bridge for the public to move around Te Whare o Rehua (the house of inspiration).
Strengthening & restoration
Contech became involved early in the project, assisting structural engineers to develop the design for the work on the existing building, then working with main contractor McMillan & Lockwood to implement the chosen solution.
After undertaking pre-construction tests and trials, the team elected to drill down from the roof level into the core of the double-brick cavity walls in the building’s interior, then install 300 stainless-steel stress bars through the core to create a virtual cage. The bars would be anchored in a new reinforced-concrete capping beam at roof level and secured at basement level within the existing concrete foundations.
They would then be grouted in place and, when further work on the building was complete, stressed to the design load to ensure a 100-year design life.
The job was not without its challenges, as the original ‘concrete’ comprised boulders and small amounts of cement paste, so mostly just sand and stones remained. However, all team members enjoyed their role in contributing to a piece of New Zealand’s history – and helping a grand old art gallery to be restored to its place as a national and architectural treasure and a must-see cultural attraction.