44 | T T Sue Russell DEVELOPMENT Duke St Hotels: Masonic Trust Breathing new life into old hotel Gerry Westenberg is dedicated to restoring the Masonic Hotel in Cambridge to its former glory. Photo: Michael Jeans. SOLUTIONS WITHOUT SURPRISES Specialist consultants in quantity surveying and project management ANZ Building, Level 2, 527 Victoria Street, Hamilton 3204 | PO Box 12664, Chartwell, Hamilton 3248 Phone: 07 839 4423 | Jason Smith Mobile: 0210 2176 484 | jason@ecsgroup.co.nz GET IN TOUCH QUANTITY SURVEYING | PROJECT MANAGEMENT | DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT PROUDLY SUPPORTING DUKE STREET HOTELS UNDERTAKING THE RESTORATION & UPGRADING OF THE MASONIC HOTEL IN CAMBRIDGE One could never accuse Gerry Westenberg of not having stickability! He’s prepared to take as much time as it needs to see a project through. Case in point: Redevelopment of the old Masonic Hotel in Cambridge, an iconic building whose history traces back 111 years when it was rebuilt out of the ashes of a fire in 2011. Renowned Auckland architect John Currie was responsible for its design. “Currie designed many beautiful commercial buildings in Auckland including Sofrana House, the Barrington Building Customs St East and the Whitcholls building on Queen St),” says Gerry. Having a positive mindset sits fundamental to achieving long-term goals, particularly when it comes to a project of the scale and nature of this redevelopment. What saw Gerry through the 10 years, since buying the old gracious building, was a deep respect for its beauty and an understanding that, for Cambridge town, the building was iconic. “I was just taken with the building and could see its potential. It had become run-down and I wanted to see it back to its former glory. I had big dreams about what it would become. The original hotel was the first commercial building in Cambridge and was built outside the large army barracks so this was a real community building, of immense significance.” Though purchased all those years ago, actual work on creating a new life for the building didn’t get underway until September last year. That’s not to say there wasn’t a lot of planning, thinking and preparing going on so that when the builders came in to begin the changes, a clear rebuilding programme was in place. Gerry says he received a great deal of support from Heritage New Zealand assisting with helpful inputs as to what could work well in the Category 2 Listed building. Seismic work formed a large part of the redevelopment and Gerry was determined to strengthen the building in a way that celebrated its form. “We didn’t want to lose any of the heritage features of the building in the process of strengthening it.” The vision, to open the very best regional boutique hotel in New Zealand has underpinned all the design decisions. One of the problems when working with an old hotel is the size of the original rooms and the fact that it had shared bathroom facilities. Gerry knew that to bring the vision to life, it would mean enlarging the existing rooms to be self-sufficient, however this posed another challenge in that larger rooms meant fewer rooms within the same footprint. An ingenious way was found to overcome this, as Gerry explains. “The only way to get the number of rooms we needed was to build up into the large attic space. Heritage New Zealand said ‘yes’ and allowed us to add height to the roof, while keeping the existing shape. By lifting the roof by 1.2m and adding dormer windows, we were able to add an extra 12 comfortable attic rooms thus making the project viable.” When completed guests will be able to choose from 29 suites, each one individually appointed. And, just as space was realised out of the attic, so too, the significant basement area has come into the hotel’s public space. ‘I was really keen to use the basement because its history goes right the way back to the original 1866 hotel. We’re excavating down part of the basement and plan to have a guest cocktail bar and stage area.” Describing the construction time-line as ‘quite aggressive’ Gerry says ‘they are going bat out of hell’ to complete all the building stages by November this year. This has been supported by a wonderful team of builders, who, he says, very much feel a shared ownership in the restoration. “As locals, they love this building. It’s always been here and what builder wouldn’t want the chance to work surrounded by such significant history. They’re happy to put in overtime in weekends to keep the schedule on track.” Taking the idea of redeveloping the Masonic to a community meeting provided Gerry with a direct sense of just how much the town was behind its redevelopment. “To know you have this backing when you’ve invested so much into the project is really wonderful. It’s like receiving the town’s blessing for what we are doing.
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