Sir Geoffrey Peren Building
By Studio Pacific Architecture
Studio Pacific was commissioned to oversee the upgrade, seismic strengthening and interior refurbishment of the Sir Geoffrey Peren Building, situated on Massey University’s Turitea campus in Palmerston North.
Designed by the renowned American architect Roy Alston Lippincott, the Sir Geoffrey Peren building was completed in 1931 and is recognised as a Category 1 historic place by the Historic Places Trust. Originally known as ‘Old Main Building’, it was renamed in 2010 to honour Sir Geoffrey Peren, the founding principal of Massey Agricultural College.
This 5,700m2 upgrade of the Peren Building’s interior encompassed teaching spaces and offices as well as more specialised facilities such as a drama suite, a media laboratory and a function centre. Teaching facilities have been extended with new flexible lecture and tutorial rooms, computer labs and specialised teaching spaces for particular departments. Interior circulation and wayfinding have also been improved, while new fire design and the installation of sprinklers allow the removal of fire separations, restoring the building’s original light-filled interior. A key space in the building is the central auditorium which has been restored to its original elegant form.
This refurbishment respects the integrity of the original ‘Spanish Mission’ architectural style, preserves one of New Zealand’s iconic heritage-listed buildings, and ensures that Massey University continues to provide a world-class teaching environment.
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Shaping Our Pacific Future – We are a cross-disciplinary architecture, interior, landscape and urban design practice shaping a more sustainable and people-centric built environment across the buildings, neighbourhoods, cities, and landscapes of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Studio Pacific was established in 1992 by friends and colleagues Evžen Novák, Nick Barratt-Boyes, and Stephen McDougall. After working in the UK and Europe, the three architects were drawn back home by a shared desire to form a collaborative and innovative practice in Te Whanganui-a-Tara – Wellington.
They opened an architecture studio ‘of the Pacific’, applying their creativity to projects that engaged with, and elevated, context and culture. Over the years, this has grown into a compelling manifesto to shape our collective Pacific future, where people and the planet are at the heart of our built environment.
Today, we are a team of around 100 – including architects, urban designers, landscape architects, interior designers and business professionals. We bring diversity in thinking and design, and a democratic culture ensures clever ideas come from all corners of the practice, not necessarily from those who have been here the longest.
Open-minded, collaborative and creative, our practice has evolved into a leading and award-winning business, working on a wide range of exciting projects that seek to make Aotearoa New Zealand a better place.
- Year founded1992
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