St. Anne’s Church Hall

The Northland hall was designed and built by Isaac Clark & Son in 1904 for a Primitive Methodist congregation. It doubled as church until completion of the adjacent brick church in 1930.

Over 100 years later, the hall has been redeveloped to meet the needs of a modern congregation and community. The project has taken seven years to come to fruition and is a result of community, Council and Historic Places Trust consultation, and a credit to the fundraising efforts of the Anglican Parish who now owns the buildings.

The existing hall and outbuildings were extensively rotted. The hall was lifted and the complete floor and subfloor structure replaced. Significant areas of wall framing were cut out and replaced with minimal disruption to the heritage fabric.

The new exterior colours were selected to complement the red brick of the church. The distinctly different architecture of the hall had to have an appropriate stand-alone exterior scheme, while still reading as one complex. The colour selection was guided by the Colorsteel® range for co-ordination with new roofing and flashings. The use of red as a feature colour was supported by the integration of Ross Hemera’s beautiful ‘Anglican Church in Aotearoa’ logo into the front door glass vision strip.

The biggest challenge for the colour scheme for this project was pulling the exterior scheme seamlessly into the new foyer space (where the exterior fabric of both historic buildings has been retained) then to the interior proper, which was a combination of social space, kids space and food preparation space. The eclectic architecture and finishes required careful consideration of colour for a consistent feel.

The interior colours highlight the modest interior detailing of the hall, but in a simple warm neutral palette to take a back seat at colour themed events such as wedding receptions. Splashes of Resene Fish N Chips brighten up the toy library walk-in cupboard and toilet areas. The semi-commercial kitchen is finished in a light colour for cleanliness. Harder wearing Resene Zylone Sheen and Resene Lustacryl were nominated as the interior wall finishes to withstand the rigours of community use.

The star feature of the refurbishment is the replacement new matai floor, finished with four coats of Resene satin polyurethane. This was a stretch for the budget but to the credit of the client, matching the original floor material was valued from both an emotional and a heritage perspective.

The main contractor, Crowe Construction, has past experience on similar heritage projects. However, it’s something of a contrast to their recent work, rolling out a number of fast-food franchise contracts around the lower North Island. Although St. Anne’s was a small project in terms of area, the detailing and finishing was intense to insert the new spaces in between the historic ones in such a manner that it could all be ‘read’. The site team (fuelled by regular parish baking!) brought the project to completion alongside a busy Church just prior to St Anne’s Day.

Products Used: Resene Armourcote 510, Resene Ceiling Paint, Resene Lustacryl, Resene Polythane, Resene Sonyx 101, Resene Uracryl 403, Resene X-200, Resene Zylone Sheen.

Colours Used: (exterior) Resene Eighth Sisal, Resene Ironsand, Resene Scoria, Resene Sisal, Resene Tapa, (interior) Resene Eighth Sisal, Resene Fish N Chips, Resene Ironsand, Resene Scoria, Resene Sisal, Resene Tapa.

Architectural specifier: Interact Architects and Designers Ltd
Building contractor: Crowe Construction and Associates Ltd
Painting Contractor: A & D Decorators
Project: Resene Total Colour Awards 2011

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