Wellington Teachers Training College (later: Karori Campus, Victoria University)
| Condition | Controversy erupted with news that the campus was transferred to the university for a humble ten New Zealand dollars in 2014. It was later resold to Ryman Healthcare in 2017 who wants to repurpose it to a retirement center. Heritage protected in 2018. Despite the listing, five of the nine buidlings were demolished later that year. |
| Architects | Stanley William “Bill” Toomath |
| Construction Date | 1975 |
In order to respect the scale of the residential neighborhood, the design avoided a large, obtrusive block and ensured all buildings were no higher than the existing houses at site boundaries. A structural grid of 4.9 meters (sixteen feet) ensures an underlying aesthetic continuity. Elevational delectation occurs with layered infilling of the resulting 4.9 × 3.7 meter (16 × 12 foot) frame from a rich menu of raw, indigenous concrete: smooth, off- white, gray, dark basalt aggregate, precast, cast in situ, board-marked, ribbed, and hacked. A desire for low-maintenance underpinned the brief. Excerpt from Christine McCarthy’s article in: SOS Brutalism: A Global Survey. Catalog DAM + Wüstenrot Foundation, Zurich (Park Books) 2017
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