‘Uniquely Timaru’: Firm explains new design for Theatre Royal

Thursday, 24 October 2024

The architecture firm behind a new proposal to upgrade Timaru’s Theatre Royal believes the job can be done locally, with a smaller budget, while helping kickstart the development of the town’s south end.

NB Architects’ proposal for the theatre redevelopment and construction of a new museum was unveiled at a public workshop, held by the Timaru District Council, on Tuesday.

It was one of four options presented, the others included a plan to build a new theatre next to the existing one, the construction of a multi-use facility on the Timaru Library site or one to do nothing.

NB Architects’ proposal to upgrade the theatre had a lower estimated price tag ($29 million) than building new next door ($32m), but that would increase to about $45m if a new museum was built as well.

“I can see why someone would say let’s just build new, it solves all problems and you get a fit-for-purpose theatre … but I think a lot of people are forgetting the history of the Theatre Royal,” NB Architects’ spokesperson, Josh Newlove, said.

“For 150 years that place has been where we have sung, laughed, cried, seen some of the great performances … I don’t know why you would want to get rid of that.”

It is expected, but not confirmed, the council can retain the $11.6m offered by the Government in 2020 if it decides to do both parts of the project.

Speaking about the new proposal, Newlove said the company had been tasked with looking at making the theatre function for the community, and as a “really good facility”.

Newlove said rather than focus solely on the theatre, they gave consideration to how the building worked in with others around it which had prompted the idea of incorporating a laneway linking it to nearby streets, civic facilities and an existing hospitality precinct.

“We don’t want it to be just about building a theatre and a museum, but how can we make that holistically work so that it drives development in the future.”

Enabling access for trucks, which would deliver big stage shows, had also been a key consideration in incorporating laneways in the design, he said.

He said the space could be utilised for performance and by people gathering, was much safer than having crowds on the street, and also opened up opportunities for the private sector.

“We think when you talk about regenerating the south end of town, this is really the type of thing you want to look at.”

He said they had looked at how they could get the most value out of any investment made by the council.

“If you’re going to spend all this money, at least let it have some benefit around it.”

NB Architects had started working on the project about six weeks ago, following a public meeting on September 9, he said.

Since then, the team of six had spoken to stakeholders, looked at the work that had already been done and pulled together a proposal which fits with the council’s wider plans for the CBD.

“The master plan talks about how all of the south end is going to be mixed use development, and … the work that’s been done talks about how important laneways are and how they provide growth off the main street.”

Newlove said he believed the now dumped $57m plan for the theatre and adjoining Heritage Hub was “good” and they had worked on how they could make the site better and alleviate some of the constraints.

The spaces within the theatre had also been carefully considered, and he said anyone who had used the theatre in the past would know the challenges people faced using the toilets and the bar due to congestion.

“We’ve tried to alleviate that by creating breakout spaces at the sides.”

The design also included space for meetings or small conferences in the lobby, side bar space or upstairs, and there were additional performance spaces in the new bar space or the green room.

He said the earthquake strength of the theatre was “pretty good”, with an extension at the front built in the 1990s sitting about 100% of NBS and the main auditorium itself about 80%.

He said the fly gallery inside the fly tower, which was sitting at 33%, would be removed and replaced.

Asked for a realistic estimate on when work could start, Newlove said as a lot of work had already been done - he believed work could start in 6-8 months.

He said they would still need to do a “full detailed design”, which could take about a year, but the work could be staged.

“The longer we leave it, the more inflation can eat away at your costs.”

He said there were benefits in having the museum in its own building, and one of the big ones was being able to hire different firms to work on different projects.

“If we can get a couple, or three, contractors working on this project - the benefit can be spread quite far.

He said the design had been simplified so that it could be done without hiring in contractors from outside the district.

“We’ve got some tremendous talent in town.

“We’ve thought carefully about how local contractors can be involved in the project, and how they will approach construction, and that was key to the design.”

During their research, they had discovered that Mark Twain spoke at the Theatre Royal in November 1895.

“Even today, when it’s bare bones, it’s a shell, without seats and it’s cold, you walk in there and you look around and you just go ‘wow - why would we want to do anything different?”

His reaction to talk of putting up a theatre similar to that of Ashburton: “Why do we want to be like Ashburton? Why can we not be uniquely Timaru?”

He said Timaru had a wonderful heritage offering, other places including Christchurch had lost, and the community should be working out how best to preserve it.

“This is a great opportunity.”

Councillors will meet on October 31 to consider the four new options.