| 57 CONTRACTING Rachel Graham Auckland War Memorial Museum lettering repaint by Marcus Wainwright. Wainwright & Hickey After many years working as a mason in New Zealand and Europe Marcus Wainwright, director of Wainwright & Hickey, still enjoys the satisfaction of doing his part to preserve special heritage buildings. Marcus trained and worked as a stonemason in Germany before moving to Dunedin in 2003. After working for the business since 2016, Donal Hickey became a partner and co-director in 2021. Donal contributes his own set of heritage preservation skills and is currently overseeing the masonry and strengthening works for the Dunedin Railway Station restoration, previously having restored parts of the iconic mosaic floors. Wainwright & Hickey do all manner of masonry work from brickwork, plastering, structural strengthening and stone work - but working on historic buildings is their primary focus believing that this work requires a real skill and craftmanship that not all tradespeople possess. Marcus says a major part of their work is carrying out structural strengthening. “Our experience in core drilling and earthquake strengthening is second to none, we pride ourselves on being able to strengthen historic buildings and monuments without compromising the original workmanship and aesthetics.” “There has been a lack of skill and experience around earthquake strengthening historic buildings, up until the Christchurch earthquakes” says Marcus. “Since then we’ve Preserving our special heritage buildings been pushing more and more to understand what we can offer, and on some projects it’s working with engineers before the drawings are even done and giving them advice on what is possible.” He says it is very satisfying to help building owners who may otherwise decide the building is too expensive or complicated to save. One major project was the restoration and strengthening of the Arrowtown Museum. The former BNZ bank was built in 1875 and sits on a prominent corner in the centre of Arrowtown. It has been the Arrowtown Museum since 1953, but in 2018 was identified as an earthquake risk. Marcus says this was a building where they could offer core drilling and installation of rods into the walls. By doing so they helped to remove distracting internal steel structures. They also carried out extensive restoration work on the much-loved building. Marcus was first attracted to stonemasonry because of interest in the traditional craft, initially working for a monumental mason. While Wainwright & Hickey don’t do headstones these days, they do take on work to restore monuments. Most of their work is around Otago and Southland, but one recent job was to add and correct names in the Auckland War Memorial Museum. He says such stone cutting skills are a fading art, but it was a wonderful experience to do his bit to update and add in the names of fallen soldiers. Marcus says whilst the stone buildings in New Zealand are younger than some he has worked on overseas, the era in which they were built and the history surrounding them is significant and unique. “The people that built them, you could trace their techniques and trades back to the great cathedrals built in Europe. The craft that is in some of these churches, you can’t separate it from those going back into medieval eras. In New Zealand, in the period from the 1860s to 1880s, you have a real height of skill levels, trades and materials, all combined in these buildings. And that makes these historic buildings so interesting.” Proud to be associated with Danone Nutricia Proud t be associ ted withWainwright & Co Stonemasons 738 Princess Street - Dunedin - Opposite the Oval 03 471 7272 • sales@timeless.org.nz • www.timeless.org.nz Raising standards since 1957. Proudly supporting WAINWRIGHT & CO. STONEMASONS 0800 BRAMWELL www.bramwellsca olding.co.nz Residential • Commercial • Events • Temporary Roo ing
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