Wellington’s national music centre, no more?

Saturday, 4 November 2023

An artist’s rendering of the original plan for the national music centre, comprising, from left, a new Willis Bond building, the Michael Fowler Centre, and the Town Hall.

There are growing doubts over Wellington’s national music centre, once compared to New York’s Juilliard School and the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

The precinct, which was to comprise the redeveloped Town Hall, its neighbouring Michael Fowler Centre, and a new neighbouring building being developed by Willis Bond, looks uncertain after the Michael Fowler Centre was slapped with a quake-prone notice, and Victoria University of Wellington put its involvement in the new building on indefinite hold due to financial woes.

The original vision was to have the university’s NZ School of Music students mingle with NZ Symphony Orchestra musicians on-site in both the Willis Bond building and the Town Hall to supercharge education, community and artistic outcomes. The buildings and the Michael Fowler Centre together were supposed to create a new, world-class creative quarter and precinct of musical excellence.

The school was to occupy part of the ground floor and level one of the Willis Bond building. The space was to be fit out with modern offices, state-of-the-art classrooms, and collaborative spaces for students and musicians.

The Willis Bond building was supposed to contain areas for NZSO musicians and staff, and NZ School of Music students to mingle.

The orchestra’s administrative staff also planned to shift into offices in the new building, which would also contain sound-proofed practice and ensemble rehearsal rooms, and a performers’ lounge.

But in a major U-turn from its original aspirations, orchestra chief executive Peter Biggs now says it’s exploring other options after the university put the Willis Bond fitout on hold.

“This will be our first ever permanent home and, ideally, as close as possible to Wellington Town Hall. We continue, in consultation with [the council] and [the university], on where that new home will be,” Biggs said. “Ideally,” he added, the orchestra would share a building with the school, “or be close by”.

The Willis Bond development hasn’t yet been built. The university and the orchestra were to jointly pay for its fitout – in addition to some fitout costs for the Town Hall, which will house new recording studios in its basement, as well as specialist practise spaces and instrument storage rooms.

The orchestra now says it’s exploring options other than the Willis Bond building, for its staff.

Lead fundraiser for the project, Dame Kerry Prendergast, confirmed that $32m had already been raised, pledged, or plans were in place to realise it.

But there was “no exact science” to how much would be put towards the Town Hall, versus the Willis Bond fitout, Prendergast said.

To eliminate a $38m deficit, Victoria University had put its capital projects including the national music centre on ice. It also proposed major cuts to its NZ School of Music staff.

Provost and professor Bryony James, on behalf of the university, said it was committed to the Town Hall fitout.

NZSO chief executive Peter Biggs says ideally the orchestra will be in the same building as the school, or close by.

But it had made no further decisions around building a new facility for its music school teaching and administrative spaces. That part of the project was on indefinite hold due to its financial challenges, James said, and there was no timeframe for when discussions might recommence.

James did not respond to questions about whether the university was reconsidering the Willis Bond site, or the project altogether.

Any donations were ring-fenced and could only be used for the purpose for which they were donated, James added. Funds that weren’t used would be returned, or moved to support another project in consultation with donors.

Since the Michael Fowler Centre and Opera House were both revealed as vulnerable to a quake, at least one Wellington City councillor has publicly said the council may have to demolish the non-heritage listed Michael Fowler Centre.

The council last month approved an eye-watering increase to the Town Hall’s own strengthening costs, to the tune of up to $329 million, up from $182m, which meant increased scrutiny on its spending elsewhere.

The orchestra and university would take on long-term leases to licence some of the Town Hall’s spaces once it reopened in 2027, and would have committed levels of venue use, said the council’s chief operating officer James Roberts.

Biggs said it would use the Town Hall’s auditorium for rehearsals, performances and recordings at least 135 days a year.

At present the orchestra uses the Michael Fowler Centre as its base. It’s highly unlikely the centre would be demolished before the Town Hall reopened.