Changing Tauranga CBD – Part 3

I find it hard to believe that it’s been a year since I wrote on the disappearance of older Tauranga city centre buildings. During my break from the subject several more have gone the way of the bulldozer’s bucket. The demise of the Tauranga Electric Power Board building, with its association to a very important aspect of the city’s history, the generation and sale of electrical power, makes it worthy of its own post.

Tauranga Electric Power Board building, 21 December 1961. Image courtesy of the Gale Collection 0005/20/680, Tauranga Heritage Collection

Designed by architect Norman Jenkins, it has been described as an early example of modernist architecture in Tauranga.[1] In the 1950s Jenkins was also responsible for the Tauranga Fire Station on Cameron Road (1957) and the Tauranga Co-op Dairy Association milk powder factory on the corner of 11th Avenue and Devonport Road (1958), which was until recently the headquarters of the Hauraki Regiment. Built in 1958 and located at 69 Spring Street the new building was a few doors up from the Power Board’s old premises that had been in use since 1925.[2]

Spring Street late 1958, showing the new Tauranga Electric Power Board building, New Zealand Insurance Company Limited, and the old Power Board building housing Federated Farmers. Image courtesy of Tauranga City Libraries Image 99-369

A few years later the building was extended as this photograph, taken in 1961, shows. Writing on the back of the image reads "Power Board building cnr. Spring and Durham. Tom Humphries, Jim Simpson with boss Warren Trotman."

Image courtesy of Trish Simpson, Tauranga Heritage Collection

A 2008 Tauranga CBD Heritage Study completed by heritage architects Matthews and Matthews  stated that "the former Electric Power Board building was an important public building in Tauranga and contributes to the diversity of the built environment in the CBD … the building forms part of a group of reasonably substantial commercial and public buildings, which have been an enduring part of the streetscape in central Tauranga."

In 2010 the City Council Hearings panel removed the building from the Council’s heritage list allowing the owners to demolish.[3] Heritage New Zealand appealed the decision and recommended the building be given a "C" heritage listing. While this appeal was unsuccessful it has taken a further 10 years and a change of ownership to see the building finally demolished. However, one element of the building has been saved, the clock, but more on that in another post.

69 Spring Street, Tauranga, 22 July 2020. Image courtesy of Fiona Kean, Private Collection

Demolition underway, 14 September 2020. 69 Spring Street, Tauranga, 22 July 2020. Image courtesy of Fiona Kean, Private Collection

References

[1] Tauranga CBD Heritage Study, Matthews & Matthews Architects Ltd.
[2] 3 March 1925, Bay of Plenty Times. According to the paper the Board paid 2,250 pounds and had 100 employees.
[3] 1 July 2012, Sunlive