Wellington's City Gallery is quake prone, report says

Wednesday, 14 August 2024

The City Gallery building in Wellington is the latest quake headache for the Wellington City Council.

Wellington’s City Gallery building that’s closed to the public is vulnerable to a quake, a new report reveals.

Wellington City Council, the building’s owner, says it will scope what remediation work needs to happen to bring it up to an acceptable standard over the next few months, but at this stage the strengthening isn’t expected to delay the reopening of the gallery building in 2026.

No estimate cost for strengthening had yet been set.

City Gallery hosts major exhibitions, including its hit Hilma af Klint showcase, pictured here in 2021.

City Gallery closed last month. It was originally supposed to close next February, however the date was brought forward as the city council moved ahead with demolition of its adjacent Civic Administration Building in Civic Square.

Experience Wellington, the council-controlled organisation that operates City Gallery, had previously said that ongoing disruptive construction work in Civic Square had forced it to move out early. Diana Marsh, Experience Wellington’s chief executive, previously denied the quake report had anything to do with its closing seven months earlier than expected.

The City Gallery building is in need of other non-quake related upgrades, including maintenance on its goods lift which transports art between its levels and its HVAC air conditioning system.

City Gallery is part of Civic Square, and closed in July as a result of disruption in the wider area.

The Post obtained a copy of Aurecon’s seismic report, which said the building’s seismic rating was 15% of the New Building Standard. As this is below 34%, it is considered earthquake prone.

The 15% rating is based on the critical structural weakness of the building’s unreinforced internal masonry walls.

The building also has other structural weaknesses, including its stairs, foundations and parapets.

The Government is reviewing the earthquake prone building system to make it easier for owners and councils to make their buildings safe in a more economic way.

Aurecon recommended strengthening work was undertaken on the unreinforced masonry walls and the upgrade of the building’s parapets if this was considered economically viable.

Mitigation of the unreinforced masonry walls only would upgrade the building to a seismic rating of 35% of the New Building Standard.

If the council wished to target a higher seismic upgrade level, this was likely to involve extensive geotechnical and foundation interventions, the report said.

There was no estimated cost for strengthening work yet, said Richard MacLean, a spokesperson for the council, however it would likely be a “relatively low figure” compared with much more extensive strengthening jobs the council had to pursue across the city.

The building is home to one of Wellington’s premier public art galleries. Pictured here, a previous exhibition by Judy Millar.

The City Gallery building is the latest quake headache for the council, which has, in recent years, passed on eye-watering rates increases to residents to fund seismic strengthening projects that have had their budgets blown out. Some of these include the Town Hall, the Central Library and the St James Theatre.

In August last year two more of the city’s major venues, the Opera House and Michael Fowler Centre, were both slapped with quake-prone notices.

Of City Gallery, MacLean said the council would engage specialist services and a main contractor over the next few months. Necessary seismic strengthening, along with other planned upgrade work, would happen during the building’s closure, he said.

Marsh said Experience Wellington was partnering with the National Library, Te Papa and the Dowse to present exhibitions during City Gallery’s closure.

The first satellite exhibition at the National Library, The Letter: Julian Hooper, runs from August 24 to November 16 this year.

Another satellite exhibition, Generation X: 50 Artworks from the Chartwell Collection, is on at Te Papa to October 20 this year. A third, Derek Jarman: Delphinium Days, will run at the Dowse in Lower Hutt between September 28 and January 26, 2025.