Brendan Rawson B Arch, FNZIA, NZCD Arch
Director
Since 1988 when I graduated from the Auckland School of Architecture I had been involved with ASC Architects . I became a Director in 1993 and left in early 2002 to start my own practice, The Architecture Office Ltd. I consider I have played a pivotal role in developing my former company’s reputation for quality Architecture by a combination of strong design skills and a practical background.
My work at ASC for the three years 1988 - 91 while varied, mainly concentrated on design work for projects and re imaging for the National Bank refurbishment programme, which at that time involved work on 180 sites nationwide and had a budget over $150 million. This involved developing new Retail Banking open planning concepts both in form and materials, and designing new tellers, customer services fittings and security features as part of an expanding design team. The start of the implementation of this design work culminated in my first building, the National Bank in Karangahape Rd Auckland City. This small bank project with a budget of $850,000, won ASC two NZIA awards for Architecture at regional and national level, and has subsequently been part of the New Zealand exhibition at the prestigious Milan Triennale exhibition in Italy. “K’Rd” has also been published in the Oceania section of the current and well-respected textbook “A History Of Architecture” by Bannister Fletcher and is used by ACC as part of its Urban design guidelines for K’Rd.
In the years preceding 1997 I had been involved in the design and documentation of several high profile and interesting projects: an $8 million N.Z Maori Arts and Crafts Development in Whakarewarewa, in association with Logan Brewer; re-imaging of Countrywide Bank’s merchandising; and corporate design and documentation for Bell South’s Wellington and Christchurch business centres.
In 1996 I completed the Regatta Court Apartments, Nelson St. A three year, $ 7.5 million building for 50 Apartments and 3 levels of parking for Malaysian investors, won ASC a New Zealand Property Council Award, completed on time and under budget.
More recently, as a director of the Archoffice Ltd. here in Ponsonby along side partner John Ingham, my work has concentrated on a very large new Residence in Kumeu and a number of smaller high end residences, work at the Edge and Mt Albert War Memorial Precinct for Auckland City, the new Recreation Centre and Master Plan at Otahuhu for Auckland City, work for North Shore City Libraries at Devonport, East Coast bays, Albany, and more recently the new Birkenhead Library.
The Birkenhead Library and Civic Centre is a $7m, six year project and is currently under construction. I consider its design is breaking new ground in both Library terms and for Environmentally Sustainable Design. As part of the lead in to Birkenhead I travelled to Australia to WA and Victoria to visit some 20 Libraries with North Shore City Council.
In March 2006 I presented a paper at the Australian and NZ Regional Libraries conference in Adelaide. I was the only NZ Architect selected to present at the conference. My paper was directed at Librarians who may have had little or no experience in building projects using Birkenhead Library as background. I have a strong interest in Architecture and design in New Zealand and have traveled extensively - the last trip being a month in France in 2000. I am a visiting critic at Auckland School of Architecture and was invited to exhibit furniture in the Artiture furniture exhibition 1988 at the Auckland Museum.