Gordon Wilson Flats
Gordon wilson memorial flats is currently under threat of demolition.
Gordon wilson flats. Gordon wilson flats is a residential building in central wellington completed in 1959. In june 2018 the university lodged an application for the redevelopment of the mclean flats although the work has yet to be started. Public notice 176kb pdf further submission one 23kb pdf further submission two 25kb pdf further submission three 25kb pdf.
Victoria university of wellington bought the gordon wilson flats site on the terrace from housing new zealand in september 2014 and applied to have this high rise modernist social housing block demolished via a plan change. The university purchased the gordon wilson flats from housing nz in 2014. The gordon wilson flats in its name memorialised the life of gordon wilson lead architect of many of the innovations in post war state housing urban and suburban.
The building was owned by housing new zealand and housed 131 people. The gordon wilson flats represent just one of two modernist and brutalist public housing complexes built under a post war government that are left in new zealand. Named after their famed architect gordon wilson flats are an iconic landmark of wellingtons varied urban streetscape.
The gordon wilson flats named after their architect was bought in 2014 and the mclean flats in 2019. Attachment h council assessment of the gordon wilson flats 2012 678kb pdf attachment i earthquake prone status of the gordon wilson flats hearing committee minute 1 355kb pdf further submissions. It is currently owned by victoria university of wellington and is unoccupied pending a decision on its future.
The gordon wilson flats are among the finest examples of cost effective high density social housing built in mid twentieth century new zealand. The idea of modernism is to create new cities this form of state housing was seen as a vision for what wellington might look like in the future says schrader. The gordon wilson flats were designed by and named after the countrys most famous modernist architect and built in the late 1950s as an urgent symbol of renewal.
In 2016 the building was removed from the citys heritage list but the decision was overturned by the environment court.