reuters house re-imagined

The existing nine-storey Reuters House, one of the first examples of a curtain walled

building in Auckland was to be refurbished and extended to maximise the commercial

floor area provided.

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Being based on the waterfront, below-grade parking was unacceptably expensive to

provide and so the proposal integrated multi-levels of spiralling parking on the adjacent lot.

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Each level was provided with a winter garden with an openable commercial overhead

door system to enable passive ventilation of the floors during summer months to

reduce cooling loads.

The built form created a monolithic screened facade to the parking, drawing on the

the imagery of the historic sandstone waterfront cliffs separating the site from Emily Place.

The office floor plates sat beside and wrapped over this element to form a clifftop

lookout peering down the axis of Fort St. This reference to the original clifftop Fort

Britomart formed a landmark end-stop to Fort Street.