Above the soaring lobby of Auckland’s Chief Post Office building – now the nexus of the city’s rail network – are three floors of office space under refurbishment to 5 Green Star and WELL Gold standards. Development manager Deidre Gourlay talks about the changes inside this grand heritage structure and how sustainability is being built into them.
Auckland’s Chief Post Office Building (CPO) was designed in the Imperial Baroque style by Claude Paton with government architect John Campbell, and opened with much fanfare by Prime Minister William Massey in 1912. It served as the city’s main post office until the 1990s, when it was transformed to the Britomart Transport Centre as rail was brought back to the central city. Now the office floors above the station entrance are being renovated to celebrate the building’s heritage features.
MELINDA WILLIAMS Hi Deidre. Could you tell me what your role is at Cooper and Company and how you’re involved with the Chief Post Office refurbishment project?
DEIDRE GOURLAY I’m a development manager for Cooper and Company, where I oversee everything from the initial planning stages to finishing touches of our development projects. My role is to ensure the project stays on track, on budget and delivered to a high standard – essentially turning our vision into a reality, if you like. Right now, my focus is on the Chief Post Office Building refurbishment that we’re undertaking for a very important incoming tenant. I feel incredibly fortunate to be involved in a heritage building refurbishment as special as this one and lucky to be working with Campbell Williamson [Cooper and Company’s development director], the internal Cooper and Company team and a very talented design and construction group to create a dynamic and special workspace for its future occupants.
MELINDA WILLIAMS The Chief Post Office, or CPO, has a long history of refurbishments and alterations. Are you able to talk briefly through what has already been done to the building, and what’s happening in this phase of development?
DEIDRE GOURLAY So, from 1912 until the early 1990s, the Chief Post Office for the country operated out of this building. In the early 2000s council chose to transform the Britomart area into a transport hub and set about converting the lower level of the building into an underground train station. As you can imagine, there were significant alterations undertaken including a major structural upgrade.
Then around 2004 Cooper and Company took over a long-term lease of the upper floors of the CPO and undertook significant works to return those floors to lettable office space following a long period of vacancy and deterioration within the building. This refurbishment involved engagement with Heritage New Zealand and the Auckland Council heritage team. I think back then the heritage approach was, if you’re adding anything new to the building it needed to be distinctive from the heritage features and so there was a lot of stainless steel and glass incorporated into the building as modern additions.
Between 2017 and 2021, the CPO was closed again for the City Rail Link (CRL) works, which involved extending the train tunnels underneath the building to connect the link. So the poor old dame was looking a little tired come 2024. This latest refurbishment is to re-reveal her character, to create a beautiful office space, but then to also put in some modern additions to ensure that the office space is fit for purpose for the next 20 or 30 years, along with further structural upgrading.
Due to the CPO’s Category One heritage listing, the highest threshold for heritage conservation, our design looks to transform the space into a vibrant sustainable workspace while celebrating her unique character – stripping away a lot of materials that have been added along the way, revealing original features such as the timber flooring, high ceilings and cornices. We’re also activating some areas that haven’t previously been occupied, like a rooftop terrace that will have amazing views over the city and a lightwell located in the middle of the building with beautiful stained-glass domes that sit in the floor of that space filtering light down into the train station below. We’re converting this area into a wintergarden, which is exciting.
MELINDA WILLIAMS This renovation and refurbishment is targeting both a 5 Green Star rating from the New Zealand Green Building Council and a WELL Gold rating from the International WELL Building Institute. What do each of those systems mean you need to consider during the development process?
DEIDRE GOURLAY When you’re aiming for both a 5 Green Star rating and a WELL Gold rating, you’re essentially looking at two different but complementary sets of criteria focused on sustainability and human health. For Green Star, that’s a Design and Construction As Built rating system certified through the New Zealand Green Building Council. What it does is put sustainability in the forefront of our minds for all decisions that we make, including things like replacing building services for more energy-efficient systems and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, enhancing indoor air quality, efficient water management, the use of sustainable low-emission materials that can be recycled or recyclable such as the reuse of native timbers, and choosing low VOC [Volatile Organic Compound] paints.
We’re also implementing a construction and operational waste management plan, including diverting demolition waste from landfill by more than 70 percent, which is a great story. For WELL certification it’s all about how the built form can improve the health and wellbeing of its occupants, so it’s similar to Green Star in that the focus is on air, water and light quality, acoustic and thermal comfort, with the addition of mind, nourishment and fitness.
MELINDA WILLIAMS And what does the WELL Gold rating involve? Does it cross over much with Green Star?
DEIDRE GOURLAY Both aim to create healthier, more sustainable buildings but WELL focuses on occupant health while Green Star focuses on environmental sustainability. In a WELL certification there are a number of initiatives that cover air quality, water quality, thermal comfort, lighting movement, nourishment, sound, mind, community and materials. There are a number of operational processes and procedures we put in place to maintain a WELL rating – such as regular air and water testing, acoustic and lighting comfort assessments and cleaning protocols. This ensures that the building continues to be a healthy and great place to work for its occupants.
From an architectural design perspective, we are designing wellness rooms into each floor, which allow for a range of activities and functions. This could be a parents’ room or a mothers’ room, so there will be a sink and fridge. It could be a prayer room or meditation room. It’s available for the occupiers to use how they see fit to support wellbeing. We have also designed gender-neutral bathrooms, which is a great step towards inclusivity. And to enhance the connection with the natural light and environment, Cheshire Architects have reimagined the central light well within the CPO building to be a wintergarden space for the enjoyment of its occupiers.
MELINDA WILLIAMS You mentioned waste reduction is an important consideration – what are you doing to manage the reduction of waste to landfill?
DEIDRE GOURLAY We’re working with Bracewell Construction as our construction partners, and they have brought on board Greenway Demolition and Green Gorilla.
Both companies focus on collecting, separating and recycling waste product to reduce the amount of construction waste going to landfill. They’re doing some great things. You’ll see on site they compartmentalise the types of waste which then gets sorted at Green Gorilla’s depot. They have their own waste processing facility where the building material is separated, so steel goes off to a specialised steel recycling plant, as does the glass and so on. But then they also have their own processing of Gib board, where the gypsum is extracted and made into fertiliser, and untreated timber converted to woodchip to go into gardens, which is great.
MELINDA WILLIAMS Could you describe what’s happening in the light well space?
DEIDRE GOURLAY Cheshire Architects have an amazing vision for the conservation and restoration of the CPO. Included in their thoughtful design is the activation of a light well which is situated in the middle of the building providing natural light to the office spaces and the Britomart train station below via some beautiful lead light domes. This will be a three-storey wintergarden with fresh air, trees, and plants, which can be used as a central hub for informal meetings and relaxation. It’s an all-weather space with a glass roof to keep the Auckland weather at bay. I can’t wait to see it finished.
MELINDA WILLIAMS Have you encountered any major challenges during the course of the refurbishment?
DEIDRE GOURLAY With any heritage building, you can plan for as much as possible, but inevitably there are hidden challenges you can’t possibly foresee until you’re underway on site. You name it, we’ve found it, from exposing damaged floorboards after pulling up the carpets, pockets of hazardous substances, some further structural upgrading needed and roof leaks. Luckily we have a great number of experts who have assisted us in solving these issues. ‘Solutions not problems’ has been my favourite saying so far on this project!
MELINDA WILLIAMS The construction industry has traditionally been a fairly male-dominated place, but something that’s interesting about this project is that you have a number of women involved. Could you talk about some of the women who are involved in different ways on this project?
DEIDRE GOURLAY Yes, the design team have a number of experienced and emerging women on the project, which has been really great to see. Our architects, Pam Sando and Lucy Hayes-Stevenson from Cheshire Architects, are our lead project designers. Pam brings a depth of design experience and Lucy is a heritage architect specialist, so her involvement has been invaluable in terms of understanding what needs to be done to look after the CPO from a heritage conservation perspective. Pamela Dziwulska from Salmond Reed Architects is also assisting as our heritage architect, providing specialist advice on the preservation of the building’s heritage features.
At Norman Disney Young, we have Taja Canlas and Yun Zhou as project engineers and Renee Young, an associate director, who oversees and signs off on the mechanical design. Kimberly Dennis and Sofie Andersson are our fire engineers from Holmes Fire, and Natalie Morrison from Holmes Structure. And there’s a number of others as well who are working on the project in the background. So it’s great to have a strong team like this in what is, as you say, quite a male-dominated industry.
MELINDA WILLIAMS Is this something that you’ve seen slowly change over time or do you think there’s been a more recent big step forward?
DEIDRE GOURLAY I think it has been evolving over time but there has been a noticeable shift in recent years, helped along by a push towards more gender diversity and educational opportunities. There’s just a lot more support out there for women in this industry, which I think is fantastic. There’s probably still a bit of work to do on the on-site construction side of things, but certainly with the design team, yeah, it’s girl power.
