| 105 T T Rosa Watson Restoration ‘satisfying’ Shaun Fowlie Builders specialises in new builds, restorations and commercial work. SECTION Shaun Fowlie Builders A historic building at the heart of Hawera is being restored to its original glory in a challenging but hugely rewarding project carried out by local firm Shaun Fowlie Builders. The 127-year-old two-storey building on High Street was home of clothing company Oxygen Surf n Street, with apartments upstairs. The first half of the building was built in 1897 and then extended in 1907. It was built as a pharmacy, which Shaun remembers as a child. It remained a pharmacy until the 1990s when it became a clothing shop. The Shaun Fowlie team has undertaken large-scale strengthening the exterior to hold the bricks. The interior walls were braced with steel which started in the downstairs level and flowed upstairs. The second-storey floor was re-skinned with ply for bracing, and then from there on up the building has been reframed, including the roof and ceiling. The upstairs walls were reinforced with Python screws to secure the old bricks to the new walls, Shaun Fowlie told Business Central. “There was quite a bit of extensive work to steel the bricks and hold the building together. Then we’ve gone through and started reframing it.” Rimu doors, skirting scotias and architecture was restored to maintain the building’s original look. The safe where drugs were stored in its pharmacy days has also remained. Old photos of the building from the 1900s were able to give the team an idea of what the original building looked like. The wooden windows downstairs match the style and size of the original building, keeping that original look. A veranda is being reinstated. The total cost of the rebuild was adding up because of the size of the job, Shaun said. The scale of it was such that 4000 hours were spent on it and at its peak Shaun had seven team members working on it. The building does not have heritage status, which made the job less restrictive, Shaun said. “It’s a bit more freeing to do what we need to do.” He said it was a unique project for the firm as strengthening work was unaffordable for most owners. “Unless the client’s got the money, they don’t really happen.” There had been restorations take place previous to this one in the early 90s, but not quite to the scale of it, Shaun said. “I would imagine some of the other ones, they just get the steel in there for the strengthening and I’d imagine won’t fit it out as much.” The engineering and fitting of the steel for the project was between $150k and 250k. However, seeing a building restored to its former glory was hugely satisfying work, Shaun said. The project is on track to have the downstairs ready to be tenanted in July. A lift is being installed to make the upstairs more accessible. Shaun said the owner was passionate about restoring the town’s buildings rather than seeing them be ripped down. “They want to try and restore them and return the heritage to the town.” He expected more work in this line to come up as buildings on the main street were strengthened. He said at the same time, there were also modern buildings going up in the town, including the $18 million library and information centre Te Ramanui o Ruapūtahanga, which provided a contrast to the restored heritage buildings. The project is something a bit different for the Shaun Fowlie Builders team, which mainly carried out new builds - around one or two a year, with two currently on the go. Proudly Supporting Shaun Fowlie Builders 027 446 3076 Bruce Commerer com_plumb@xtra.co.nz All of your painting and paper needs located in South Taranaki. Proudly supporting Shaun Fowlie Builders 027 363 0033 titopaintandpaper@icloud.com HĀWERA ENGINEERING AGRICULTURAL, FABRICATION & STRUCTURAL STEEL GET IN TOUCH TODAY (06) 278 3553 027 336 5063 www.gtengineeringltd.co.nz Graham Podjursky 381 Broadway, Stratford PH: 06 765 6829 Mob: 027 476 1390 Proudly Supporting Shaun Fowlie Builders
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