DESPITE some claiming they would block demolition of the Aniwaniwa visitor centre at Waikaremoana, the Department of Conservation says work began yesterday without any disturbance.
The 41-year-old building had been condemned due to weather tightness and stability issues. In 2010 the estimated cost to bring the building up to current building standards and refit it for use was around $3 million.
Prior to its closure in 2008 the Department of Conservation had spent a substantial amount of money trying to maintain the building, including re-roofing and re-cladding it, which was unsuccessful.
The Department of Conservation begins the dismantling and removal of the old Aniwaniwa Visitor Centre next week.
Operations director Meirene Hardy-Birch said DoC had considered all practical options for the old building since Wairoa District Council condemned it.
“This has been a difficult decision as so many parties have an interest in the building. We have had to balance those interests and it hasn’t been easy.
“We have explored a number of options over the years. We even sought proposals from parties interested in repurposing the building, without success.”
She said DoC was working with Tuhoe’s tribal organisation, Te Uru Taumatua, on a new Te Wharehou o Waikaremoana, with visitor information, located at Home Bay adjacent to the Waikaremoana Holiday Park.
Tamati Kruger, chairman of Te Urewera Board and Te Uru Taumatua, said Waikaremoana people, as designers of the new build, would be free to express their world in their own way.
“Timber from the old visitor centre will be used in the new wharehou. This will be a foundation upon which the visitors will come, and collaboration will occur. We all have a wish for the collective memory, or wairua, forged from relationships that have occurred through the old whare [to be] an endowment in the new wharehou.”
Institute of Architects president Christina van Bohemen had earlier urged DoC to repair and renovate the building, rather than demolish it.
She said it was designed in the 1970s by the late John Scott, a pioneering Maori architect who was one of the outstanding figures in New Zealand’s twentieth century architecture.
“What sort of example is this? The only thing that can be said about the Department of Conservation’s decision to demolish the Aniwaniwa Visitor Centre is that it is entirely consistent with the department’s long neglect of the building.
“This Category One listed building, paid for by all New Zealanders, should have official protectors. What does Heritage New Zealand have to say about this issue? Why has Maggie Barry, who is minister of both conservation and culture and heritage, been silent about the threat to the visitor centre?”
An Auckland company started the process of making the site and building safe yesterday ahead of its dismantling. The cost of dismantling the building, transferring the timber, removing, salvaging and disposing of any material at an approved landfill, and restoration of the site has been put at $180,000.
Before the work began yesterday, a small group, which included family members of the late John Scott were taken on site to carry out a farewell.
A karakia had been performed earlier in the morning by the Waikaremoana Tribal Authority, clearing the way for the work that would continue over the next six to eight weeks.