St Gabriel's was one of the largest and most expensive of the new churches in the Hokianga to be built by 1900. Today, it remains as one of the earliest churches still on its original site and is definitely a Hokianga destination worth making, as it sits on a promontory in clear sight for miles before reaching it.
This building, designed in 1929 by Roy Lippincott, is the University of Auckland’s flagship building and its heritage character was central to Salmond Reed Architects’ involvement in the project. Heritage considerations, such as reversibility – the ability to readily remove any new fit-out elements in the future without compromising the original heritage fabric – were central to the design approach.
The brief called for maximum acoustic privacy between individual offices and for the provision of a comfortable working environment using natural and mechanical ventilation. It was also important to maintain transparency and continuity at the interface between the atrium and the south wing at both levels, using predominantly transparent partitions and to maintain the transfer of light from the main stairwell into the atrium.
