Work on the Hundertwasser Art Centre with Wairau Māori Art Gallery is well underway, and it’s exciting to see the walls go up on one of New Zealand’s most challenging and complex commercial builds. Trigg Construction is the main contractor for the project, and MD Darrell Trigg says, “It’s an amazing thing to be part of as everything is bespoke, no two details are allowed to be the same, and every window in the building is a different shape and size, but I’m proud to say that the Trigg team are once again proving up to the challenge”.
Designed by Austrian-born New Zealand artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, the Art Centre is in the heart of Whangarei’s waterfront on a site chosen by Hundertwasser himself in 1993.
Once built, this iconic building will house original Hundertwasser artworks from the collection of the Hundertwasser Non-Profit Foundation in Vienna, and be New Zealand’s first public gallery dedicated to contemporary Māori fine art.
Trigg Construction is proud to be working alongside other local Northland firms with 95% of the subtrades on the project sourced locally. “It is an absolute honour and a real privilege to have been entrusted to build a project that is so unique and means so much to Whangarei and all of Northland,” says Darrell.
Trigg took possession of the site in June 2018 and, with the 33-month construction well underway and on schedule, we’re on target to finish in March 2021.
The building has four levels, with the third level a walk-on green roof of 1053m2. The fourth level is a 41m2 viewing platform. As of right now, the ground and first-floor walls are complete, the second-floor is being completed, and the tower is complete up to the second floor level. Plastering and waterproofing of the walls are underway as well as services like pipework and air conditioning.
