Entering the prestigious New Zealand Commercial Projects Awards, construction company Street & Cook Ltd was rewarded with golden success for its development of Garden City Helicopters Aviation Centre at Christchurch Airport.
Street & Cook, a New Plymouth based operation, entered the ‘Health’ category, receiving a Gold Award at the special Gala Dinner held at Sky Tower in May of this year.
Open to all New Zealand-based commercial construction project partners including contractors, architects, building owners, engineers and quantity surveyors, the awards set a benchmark for commercial construction in New Zealand.
The challenging project, completed alongside Christchurch Airport’s operational zone, consisted of the construction of five hangars to accommodate helicopters, private jets and The Flying Doctors, along with all associated offices, lounges and international biosecurity and customs facilities.
“It’s a boutique private terminal,” says John O’Mahony, Street & Cooks General Manager. “It’s quite a fancy looking building with an administration and reception area, offices and a VIP lounge for international guests.
“Clients coming from overseas in a private aircraft can enter with complete discretion.”
Designed by Christchurch’s Lonsdale Architectural, construction of the new 9000sqm facility commenced at the start of 2016 and took 18 months to complete.
Straddling the air-side and land-side airport security border, the facility was integrated with the airport infrastructure, requiring adjustments to the security fencing. John explains that working alongside an airport operational zone brings with it a number of challenges.
“You can’t have anything blowing onto the runway, foreign object debris. You have to have an incredibly tidy site.
“You have to do security checks on your workforce, because very often you’re straddling that security line between air-side and land-side.”
While Street & Cook had a crew of about 12 staff on the ground, they engaged a wide range of local sub contractors throughout the project.
Completed alongside Christchurch Airport’s operational zone, The Garden City Helicopters project consisted of the construction of five hangars to accommodate helicopters, private jets and The Flying Doctors, along with all associated offices, lounges and international biosecurity and customs facilities.
John says the secret of success was selecting the right sub-contractors who were sympathetic to the very controlled environment that they were working in.
He says they were fortunate in having help in the selection of sub-contractors from Garden City Helicopters.
“Careful craftsmanship and the use of quality materials in the construction of the building reflect the prestigious nature of the building. It’s absolutely a high-end commercial build.”
Of the Award, John says it made Street & Cook incredibly proud of their team and the work that had been done on the project. “It puts us up there with the prestigious builders. We take great pride in the quality of work we do and the types of projects we undertake.
“The awards are prestigious – they show a level of excellence, quality and innovation in what we do.”
Buoyed with the success of the Garden City Helicopters Aviation Centre project, Street & Cook has now opened a Christchurch branch of their commercial operation.
“We will be operating around Christchurch City and have commenced our next project – an apartment block in Barbadoes Street, called Latimer Central Apartments.”
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The new Garden City Helicopters Aviation Centre at Christchurch Airport is a standout facility.
