While the Public Trust was established in 1873, it took another 36 years for it to have purpose-built premises. In 1894 government architect Sir John Campbell was asked to prepare plans for a new Public Trust office in the grounds of the Parliament buildings. This was the beginning of the controversial and drawn-out process which culminated in the completion of the Old Public Trust Building in 1909.

The architect

Sir John Campbell was born in Glasgow in 1857 and arrived in Dunedin in 1882. He moved to Wellington in 1888 and by 1890 was appointed the Chief Government Architect. His most renowned project is Parliament House but he also completed several other major public buildings and was responsible for establishing 'Edwardian Baroque' as the style for courthouses, post offices and police stations throughout New Zealand.

The style of building

Edwardian Baroque is an architectural style developed during the Edwardian period (the reign of King Edward VI), which drew upon the Classical, Renaissance and Baroque architectural languages. A New Zealand newspaper article from the period described it as "the better style of architecture so rapidly springing into vogue". It was a spectacular ornamental language appropriate to both the high spirits and new technologies of the turn of the century and, in New Zealand, to a sense of optimism about the development of a new nation.

The location

Concerns were quickly raised about the choice of location for the Old Public Trust Building. Its presence would diminish the amount of reserve land surrounding the Parliament buildings and the location was thought to place the new building and its precious documents at unnecessary risk of fire owing to its proximity to the flammable, wooden government buildings. Accordingly in 1899 Parliament passed the Appropriation Act to provide for the erection of a new Public Trust Office outside the Parliament grounds.

In 1900 the government purchased reclaimed land at the corner of Lambton Quay and Stout Street. This site too was controversial - there was concern that the proposed five-storey office building was too tall to be supported on reclaimed land and that the deeper foundations required would be too expensive. Sir John Campbell completed his plans for the site in 1905 including design of an earthquake resistant steel-rivet frame. This frame had caused great controversy in 1904 when the government consulted San Francisco architects Messrs Reid Brothers about its design. This lead to public criticism that the idea was structurally unproven, too expensive and likely to cause further project delays. On learning about this transaction the Chronicle newspaper, with some prejudice, ran the headline "£1400 thrown away!" The Old Public Trust Building subsequently became the first building in New Zealand to have a steel-rivet frame and, consequently, survived major earthquakes in 1923 and 1942 with minimal damage.

Read more about this in the section Structure and Earthquake Strengthening.

The construction

The building was constructed on site by Messrs A. and J. Wilson from a builder's yard and a stonecutter's shed that were set up next door on Stout Street. The building contains many materials: a steel-rivet structural frame, reinforced concrete foundations and floors, pressed brick and Tonga Bay granite exterior walls, timber-framed interior walls, metal-framed windows, a slate tile roof and copper ornamentation. Construction took roughly a year longer to complete than intended, with the builders blaming their tardiness on difficulties they experienced in obtaining a regular supply of Tonga Bay granite.

Read more about Tonga Bay Granite on the homepage.

The building opens

The building was opened on 9 June 1909 by Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward. In his opening speech he paid homage to Sir Julius Vogel and the Hon. E. C. J. Stevens, to whom the hugely successful Public Trust initiative is credited. Celebrations continued late into the night with the tramways putting on a special tram to take revellers home at 2 a.m.