Pumphouse Theatre Restoration
In a history that spans almost 110 years, the building that we now know as the PumpHouse Theatre has had its ups and downs.
Sitting on the shore of Takapuna’s Lake Pupuke, it began life in 1906 as a water pumping station, a more sophisticated version of the original pumping station that was opened in 1984 and supplied some North Shore suburbs with water.
According to a heritage report commissioned by Auckland Council, the new brick pumphouse was designed by H Metcalfe and built by Mays and Gordon. The machinery was provided by J Chambers and Son.
Water was taken from Lake Pupuke to supply Devonport and Takapuna as well as growth areas such as Birkenhead and Northcote. Once demand for water grew, the lake was not able to refill from local run-off, and water quality became an issue. Since 1941 water has been pumped to Takapuna from reservoirs in the Waitakere Ranges via Birkenhead. Around that time the pumphouse was closed and in the following decades the building fell into disrepair.
Nick Herangi, of Legacy Construction, says, “At some stage the concrete cap was removed from the chimney for safety reasons and an attempt was made to fix cracks in the chimney shaft but otherwise the site was neglected for the better part of 30 years.”
The pumphouse was slated for demolition in the late 1960s but got a last-minute reprieve when a group of amateur artists came together and later formed the North Shore Theatre and Arts Trust to save the building. They began raising money and planning a restoration that would turn the building into a community theatre and gallery. Architect Harry Turbott did the design work for the refit and renovation and the first performance in the PumpHouse Theatre was held in 1977.
Nick Herangi says no major structural work or strengthening was carried out on the actual brick building during the renovations and conversion to a theatre. He says, “Essentially, the brick building and chimney had been held together by the original 1905 bricks and mortar until an engineer's report commissioned by North Shore City Council in 2010 revealed serious structural issues with the leaning chimney and immediately closed the building while urgent seismic strengthening work was undertaken.”
The PumpHouse was closed for a few months while that remedial work was carried out and reopened later in 2010.
Nick says the structural integrity of the PumpHouse was scrutinised yet again following the devastation of the Christchurch earthquakes.
“Auckland Council's tabled maintenance schedule for earthquake strengthening works on its historic building assets was prioritised and so in 2014 The PumpHouse Theatre roof was replaced,” says Nick.
“Legacy Construction were again employed to undertake the structural strengthening of the PumpHouse roof. Work took 16 weeks and consisted of removing the asbestos roof very carefully by certified people and disposing in a registered tip. Anti-asbestos spray was then applied to the roof area, encapsulating any remaining fibres. Scaffolding was set up around the entire building to make a safe working platform from where the workers could undertake their tasks.
“The existing rafters were exposed, re-levelled and then overlaid with 18mm structural ply to allow the roof to have a much sturdier roof bracing. Strapping was then placed over the ply and the new corrugated iron laid.
Heritage specialists Dave Pearson Architects consulted on the construction work and recommended using True Oak® Corrugate roofing because it complemented the aesthetics of the brick building.
Matt Davey, of Dave Pearson Architects, says, “It probably had a slate roof originally but that would have been too expensive to replicate and using a corrugated profile metal roof does do justice to these old buildings.”
Nick Herangi adds, “On the interior of the building, new structural steel was installed to tie all of the rafters and bottom chords together to allow the transfer of load.
“Site foreman Anthony Campbell worked well with the staff of the PumpHouse, having to pre-program his works to include the ongoing productions that were taking place at the time. Quite often work started early to accommodate this.”
As well as work on the brick building, Legacy Construction also undertook strengthening and refurbishing of the chimney.
Grant Hemana, of Legacy Construction, was project manager for this job, which took about five months.
He says, “The scope was to do immediate structural strengthening repairs to the chimney structure. The brief was to pour reinforced concrete walls inside the chimney with brick ties at 400 centres each way.
“The chimney is approximately 28m high, the internal space was 1700mm square at the bottom and 1400mm square at the top. Once we had the reinforcing fitted we had a space of 900mm to work in. A 900mm x 900mm space 28m down a chimney made it a very challenging job.
“There was only space for one worker at a time during the duration of the works, all the materials had to be lowered in whilst the worker was inside so every safety aspect had to thoroughly thought out and managed.“The chimney was fully scaffolded; this was also used to brace the external faces to counter the pressure of the concrete poured inside. Access was gained by an electric bosun’s chair, which was operated by an operator at the top of the chimney. There was also external brick repairs and new pointing done.”