Eye-catching apartments mark half-century, residents throw Park Mews a party

Tuesday, 23 April 2024

Park Mews celebrates its 50th anniversary with a street party for residents. Architect Roger Walker talks about his favourite aspects of the apartments and what makes them so special.

Wellington’s quirky and eye-catching Roger Walker-designed apartments have reached a half-century milestone; and to celebrate residents threw Park Mews, as the Hataitai landmark is officially known, a street party.

There was food, and music, and even a DJ, spilling onto the Tapiri St cul-de-sac on Saturday. The architect of the colourful apartments also joined the celebrations.

“There was an opportunity to to design a community. If you’ve got a bland block of flats they all have the same drawbacks. I thought: it doesn’t have to be like that,” Walker said.

The housing complex has been controversial since it was first built in 1973. Seen from State Highway 1 between Mt Victoria Tunnel and the airport, the buildings’s round windows and pointed roofs immediately catch the eyes of most visitors driving into the city.

Architect Roger Walker attended the street party celebrating Park Mews’ 50th anniversary. Walker designed the apartment complex.

Walker said he was delighted to come along.

He said the complex was designed to be cross between a suburban development and an urban block of flats.

The party had shown he had clearly achieved his goal of creating a “real community”, which he loved, he said.

Students Chantal Rapley, Mia Page and Lucy Mayers all flat together in Park Mews.

The building was designed by Walker and built by developer Campbell Homes. Homes was ambitious, US-born Mormon and a “character”, and wanted to build something different and original for the city, Walker said.

The project made waves as soon as it was built. The owner of the property next door attempted to sue Homes for loss of privacy, Walker said, with Homes counter suing for the house allegedly devaluing his buildings.

Eventually the judge found that the solution would be for the parties to build a large wall between the properties and spilt the bill, Walker said. Of course, the wall was never built, he joked.

For his work designing the project, Walker was awarded the Wellington Enduring Architecture Award at the New Zealand Architecture Awards in 2018.

What is his favourite feature of the building? Its signature round windows, he said.

The round windows and balconies were his way of giving each apartment that outside space, with the windows meant to represent abstract flowers. But as well every house had a garden, he said.

He said the mews were repainted in their original colour scheme a few years ago, after he found the original documents in his office.

Because the site was so expensive, they needed to fit 30 apartments on it, Walker said. Efforts were made to keep it private and accessible.

John Reseigh said he has lived in the apartments since 1995, and loved living in the community.

“The big colourful castle,” was how resident Chantal Rapley described the apartment she and her friends live in. Rapley, along with her flatmates Mia Page and Lucy Mayers, said their friends were in awe that got to live in the mews.

“All our friends are like, there’s so much character, and it’s such a funky little place to live.”

While their flat is small, there’s enough room for everyone. And the traffic? They hardly even hear it any more, Rapley said.

The students enjoyed living there so much, they never wanted to move out, they said. Rapley’s grandfather knows Walker from architectural school, adding to the mix.

Fellow Mews resident John Reseigh had lived in the apartments since 1995. He said he loved his home, with the complex having a “real community feel” to it.

“There’s so much character,” he said.