‘Juilliard of the Pacific’ national music centre on hold amid Vic Uni financial woes

Thursday, 6 July 2023

A planned national music centre on Wellington’s waterfront ‒ hailed the “Juilliard of the Pacific” ‒ is on hold as Victoria University tries to claw back a $34m deficit.

It is one of a number of capital projects affected by the university’s dire financial situation that has also resulted in 229 staff facing redundancy. In that initial proposal, eight jobs of the 26 music teaching staff were on the line.

Voluntary redundancies opened on Tuesday. The Government’s funding boost, announced last week, could mean fewer redundancies and save a “modest but important number” of jobs, vice-vhancellor Nic Smith said.

The national music centre was a collaboration between the council, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra and the university, to form a musical hub near Civic Square.

The plan was to locate new music teaching and performance spaces near the Town Hall, which will be the home of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Together, they would form “the Juilliard of the Pacific,” former Wellington mayor Dame Kerry Prendergast last year said, referring to the renowned New York music school.

The university and symphony orchestra will no longer take two floors in the new building, being developed by Willis Bond in the Michael Fowler Centre car park.

That stage of the project has been paused “as a result of the financial challenges facing the university”, Smith said.

He was leading a programme of work to secure “long-term sustainability” and the project had been paused while that work continued.

The Town Hall part of the project will go ahead and is scheduled to open in 2025.

The university recently increased its funding by $6.3m for the performance spaces in the Town Hall, which is under construction.

The plans include refurbishment of four rooms to include state-of-the-art recording facilities, a jazz lounge, rehearsal rooms and a multi use space with adaptable acoustics.

“These spaces will provide central city rehearsal and performance spaces for the university’s New Zealand School of Music - Te Kōkī, the NZSO and the community,” Smith said.

The national music centre was previously planned for the Municipal Office Building in Civic Square, but the city council later decided to bowl the building due to increasing earthquake strengthening costs.

In December 2021 it was announced the music centre would move into the Willis Bond development and that the university had agreed to a 25-year lease.