Contemporary and funky, yet organic in its design, The Hotel Britomart will make an emphatic statement on Auckland’s inner city landscape when it is completed in 2020.
The project, which includes further development of the Britomart precinct, is being spearheaded by Cooper and Company which owns Britomart Group, a private investment company with offices in Auckland, California and Texas.
The 10-storey, 104-room hotel on the corner of Gore and Galway Street will be connected to adjacent heritage buildings by a laneway leading to its main entrance and will also form a new connection with Customs Street through the Masonic Building.
With Britomart being a vibrant neighbourhood in the heart of downtown waterfront Auckland, the hotel is designed to maximise guests enjoyment of all that is on offer in the precinct.
Britomart Group marketing project manager Jeremy Hansen says it was exciting to see construction begin on the hotel in July after many years of planning.
“The long gestation period was not because the project was ever stalled, just that we spent a long time exploring what the right approach for Britomart would be.”
Cooper and Company is working with Auckland Council and Auckland Transport to transform Galway Street into a shared space during the hotel construction process, making the Britomart precinct an even more welcoming environment for pedestrians.
In addition to its lobby, Hotel Britomart’s ground floor will be occupied by retail outlets and food and beverage offerings. “It’ll be a fantastic complement to the many amenities that are already in the precinct.
“The Hotel Britomart has been designed as an integral part of our downtown waterfront neighbourhood, and to give our guests the benefits of unrivalled proximity to the huge range of eating and shopping opportunities in this lush, pedestrianfriendly precinct.”
Aesthetically, Britomart has always been about the dynamic combination of heritage buildings and contemporary architecture, he says.
Designer Cheshire Architects have worked in the precinct for 15 years and had a role in everything from its master-planning to the creation of a number of beautiful restaurant interiors.
“They understand the Britomart story deeply, and The Hotel Britomart is just the latest chapter in that.”
A feature of its striking exterior will be rustic brick work cast into pre-cast concrete panels, studded with an irregular “constellation” of windows.
Designer Nat Cheshire says the roughness and tactility of the brick exterior is a deliberate act of resistance against “these glass curtain-wall towers of our city and our time”.
“The colour of the clay is irregular, as is the way that the bricks are laid out across the face. It ebbs and flows from a very regular stacked grid into much more organic patterns of interleaving and stacking.
“Using brick also establishes a really positive, intimate conversation with those beautiful, rough, heavy old buildings that surround us. The trick was to not let that lapse into a building that deferred to its environment.”
Another clever device used in The Hotel Britomart’s design was breaking up its mass so it looks almost like two thin 10-storey buildings joined by a slender shaft of glass.
Each of the two main volumes is just five metres wide, and are slipped; one is taller than the other, one longer than the other.
The Hotel Britomart is targeting a 5-star Green Star rating that is part of a wider commitment to sustainability throughout the Britomart precinct. Bracewell Construction is the main contractor.
Construction manager Brett McPherson says he anticipates construction to be straight forward, but the brick work in the pre-cast concrete panels is unusual. “I don’t think it’s been done before in New Zealand so that’s quite a significant difference to a standard building.”
Bracewell Construction have a long standing relationship with Cooper and Company. “We accepted the project because we like what they do and they’re good to work for.”
During the past 50 years and over three generations, Bracewell Construction has completed several hundred prestigious construction projects, from multi-unit residential construction, schools, banks, offices and hospitals to hotels and apartments.
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