58 | Morgan & Pollard Landscapes Richard Loader Winning team kicking major goals Rolleston School play area. Below, Te Atu Ata in detail. to page 60 CONTRACTING Reflecting upon Morgan & Pollard’s recent success at the 2022 Landscapes of Distinction awards, Adam Pollard says the basis of landscape construction is hands on skilled people; without them there is no business. He says the team’s ownership of projects and their ability to do the job well is what keeps the business in business, along with looking after the needs of its clients. “We’re regular entrants of the Landscapes of Distinction awards, and there are a couple of reasons why we enter. The first is to showcase what out talented staff can do, along with the hard work that they put in both the design side and the construction side of our business. It’s also a great way to show the wider public the work that Morgan & Pollard can do. We don’t enter a lot of projects. We just select the ones that have some unique features. We’ve previously won Landscaper of the Year, and the Premier award before, but most years we get a selection of Gold, Silver and Bronze awards.” Using ‘unique features’ as Morgan & Pollard’s guiding measure, two projects were entered into this year’s Award competition, earning a Premier Award for the Best Construction Project of The Year and a Judges Recognition Award for a design and build project. The Premier Award was for a sensory garden at the Te Ara Atea Rolleston Library that had been designed by the Selwyn District Council, and was a mix of features including a wheelchair-activated musical timber boardwalk and an individually-placed riverstone tactic ‘Rumblewalk’. “There are lots of artistic features that just make it an interesting space to be in,” says Adam. “The stone work was completed by one of our apprentices who did an amazing job of it. The other project was for Rolleston School. Over the last ten years we’ve done a lot of landscaping work for the school and the basketball courts was the one area that we hadn’t touched. The school wanted something that was very visual, inviting and a very usable space that the kids could play a number of sports on. One of our landscape architects came up with this design that has a lot of colour. There’s a multi-use rebound wall and many other really cool features. One of those interesting features was the surfacing of playing area using what was termed a ‘Nike Grind’. Old Nike sneakers were recycled and ground up to provide a soft rubber and multi-coloured surface — providing the perfect recycling story. “Receiving these awards is a real morale boost for our team and recognises their hard work and creativity. For Morgan & Pollard, it shows that even though everything is really busy and we’ve been around for a long time we’re still out there doing great work and our staff have some really great skills.” Adam joined the business, that was co-founded by his father, 26 years ago after doing a building apprenticeship and running his own building company. In a classic case of liking the business so much that he stayed, he went on to buy the business fifteen years ago. For all your irrigation, pumping and water filtration needs Proudly supporting Morgan & Pollard 03 349 9488 www.tiw.co.nz 40 Carmen Rd, Hornby, Christchurch
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