| 73 T T Hugh de Lacy Platinum award a rare honour Restoration of the earthquake-damaged St Faith’s Anglican Church in New Brighton won the Gold and National Category Awards in the Heritage and Restoration category, then the National Value award for projects between $1m and $3m. BUILDING HRS Construction Two superbly delivered projects in as many years have earned Christchurch builder HRS Construction the rare accolade of a Platinum Award from the New Zealand Master Builders Association. The award recognises HRS Construction’s winning of no fewer than five National Awards in the last two annual Master Builders construction awards. Last year the company won the Supreme Award, plus a Gold Award and a National Category Award in the Tourism and Leisure category, then the National Value Award for projects between $10 million and $25m, for the $16m Ravenscar House museum and art gallery in Christchurch. This year HRS Construction’s restoration of the earthquake-damaged St Faith’s Anglican Church in the suburb of New Brighton won the Gold and National Category Awards in the Heritage and Restoration category, then the National Value award for projects between $1m and $3m. St Faith’s Anglican Church started out as a wooden one in 1886, was enlarged in 1909, only to be replaced five years later by the present church, a handsome structure of black Banks Peninsula basalt rock highlighted in creamy Oamaru stone. The building was severely damaged in the February 2011 Christchurch earthquake, and HRS Construction’s role was to return it to its pristine condition. The company was encouraged all the way by “a very strong and committed congregation,” Managing Director Andrew Marshall says. “St Faith’s had suffered extensive structural damage, both to the stonework and the slate roof, and it hadn’t been touched in the ten years since the quakes.” The first task was strengthening the foundations and tying the walls together, then they had to be reconnected to the vaulted timber structure of the roof. Once the building was structurally sound again the flooring was reinstated and the roofing and spouting refurbished. “We made it look like new, as if there’d never been an earthquake in the first place,” Andrew says. The Master Builders judges – and the congregation – agreed, and St Faith’s was reopened for services in May of last year. HRS Construction was formed in 1988 as what Andrew describes as “a traditional builder” doing its own jobs with its own staff, rather than settling for a project management structure. Andrew now owns the business with Construction Manager Richard Gibb; both of them completed building apprenticeships with Downer Construction, Andrew in Christchurch and Richard in Dunedin. When in 2005 HRS’ founders started succession planning, they brought Andrew and Richard, who had both worked for them but previously never met, together over coffee and cake, and offered to progressively sell the company down to them. Richard and Andrew grabbed the opportunity, and today the company has a staff of 60. “It was what you might call an arranged marriage, but Richard and I have got on really well, and I think the old directors are pleased with the way the company’s performed. “We’re a traditional Tier Two Canterbury company with our own carpenters and apprentices, including 12 supervisors and ten office staff,” Andrew says. “A lot of our work is for government departments, including the Ministry of Education and Te Whatu Ora, and for the University of Canterbury. “We also do sub-stations for Orion, Transpower and Mainpower. “Our private projects include fit-outs, shops, offices, warehousing and, more recently, some affordable housing.” That versatility has seen HRS Construction safely through the post-Covid disruptions, and the St Faith’s Church job coincidentally marks “pretty well the end” of the earthquake reconstruction phase that’s taken up a lot of its time over the last 12 years, Andrew says. And St Faith’s will last for another hundred years as an icon of the company. J. TAIT LTD Est. 1863 STONEMASONRY CONTRACTORS 021 226 1286 or 03 379 4485 james.tait@xtra.co.nz 15 Coleridge Street, Sydenham, Christchurch Proudly supporting HRS Construction Ltd P: 03 389 3725 M: 027 328 8541 E: ben@woodthom.co.nz W: www.woodthom.co.nz A: 28 Nuttall Drive, Hillsborough, Christchurch, 8022
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