1The Auckland Art Gallery is an iconic and much-loved part of the city’s cultural heritage. When the gallery needed to seismically strengthen and refurbish the buildings – which were built in 1888 and 1916 respectively – they trusted the challenging work to Holmes Consulting Group’s expert engineers. The final part of the work was to design new space to host an ever-growing number of exhibits, including the work of many of New Zealand’s most celebrated artists. This project required the technical expertise to cope with a challenging seismic ‘retrofit’, combined with the ability to match the character and style of the new space with the existing structure. It was a tough brief we were delighted to handle.

2The seismic strengthening work started with the rigorous assessment of the building’s structural needs, drawing on market-leading modelling technology to identify potential weaknesses. The strengthening solution focused on minimising the impact on existing heritage features, at the same time as creating a robust, resilient structure for the future. The new space includes three galleries and two new roof level sculpture terraces, and the addition of a 3-storey glass atrium structure with a tension rod façade system and tree-like canopies that define and cover the entry forecourt, atrium and gallery areas.