Gordon Wilson Flats heritage status ‘goneburger’

Tuesday, 17 June 2025

Heritage protection preventing demolition of Wellington’s derelict Gordon Wilson Flats is set to be stripped away, with a possibility the wrecking ball could be swinging within months.

The move, set to be announced on Tuesday by RMA Reform and Housing Minister Chris Bishop, clears the way for Victoria University of Wellington to press on with long-delayed plans for new accommodation for more 500 students.

“The Gordon Wilson Flats heritage protection is goneburger,” Bishop exclusively revealed to The Post.

The flats have been an crumbling, earthquake-prone eyesore looming from The Terrace - and the subject of heated political debate and a frustration for more than a decade - due to what critics deemed a crippling heritage regime.

Bishop will introduce an amendment to the Resource Management Act that will allow for its demolition as a “permitted activity”, without the need for consent.

“The flats sit as an ugly scar on the Wellington skyline, emblematic of a failed planning system that prioritises preservation of heritage, no matter the economic cost,” he said.

Victoria vice-chancellor Nic Smith told a select committee hearing in March the university, which applied to de-list the building more than 10 years ago, had spent “$1.5 million plus on legal fees and the maintenance of a building which is earthquake-prone, asbestos-infused and uninhabited”.

A new development would be a “gateway to the university” and provide affordable accommodation for hundreds of students, he said.

The flats, which were built in 1959, have sat empty since 2012. Tenanted by Housing New Zealand until deemed unsafe, the building is considered by some to be iconic.

A Heritage NZ report once cited their “outstanding historical significance” as the country’s only remaining example of 1950s high-rise state housing.

Bishop argued “cities shouldn’t be museums”.

“The Wellington City Council wants the Gordon Wilson Flats demolished, Victoria University ‒ the current owner ‒ wants them demolished, and the people of Wellington want them demolished too.

“The Government is not prepared to let the situation continue any longer.”

The university’s vice-chancellor was pleased with the outcome.

The decision was a significant milestone for the university and its students and a “positive step forward for the future of our city”, Smith said.

“While there is more to do to realise our vision, this marks the beginning of a process that will enable us to provide additional warm, affordable, and environmentally sustainable student accommodation at meaningful scale.”

“Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington welcomes this important decision and acknowledges Minister Bishop’s leadership in advancing the legislative changes required.”

The amendment paper to the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill, will be introduced between the second and third reading of the bill during a committee of the whole house. The bill is expected to pass into law in the middle of this year.

The amendment will be specifically for the Gordon Wilson Flat, and will not apply to any other heritage-protected buildings.

“The Gordon Wilson Flats have been singled out because the building is owned by a public institution ‒ Victoria University ‒ and because that owner, the council and the community all want it gone,“ Bishop said.

The Bill also contained wider amendments to allow councils to de-list heritage buildings in their district plans faster and more easily, he said.

“The wider issue of heritage protection is also being actively considered as part of the Government’s replacement legislation for the Resource Management Act, expected to be introduced later in the year.”