Excerpt from Wikipedia:
The Auckland Town Hall is a historic building on Queen Street in downtown Auckland, New Zealand, known both for its original and ongoing use for administrative functions (such as Council meetings and hearings), as well as for its famed Great Hall and its separate Concert Chamber. The Town Hall and its surrounding context is highly protected as a 'Category A' heritage place in the city's district plan.
Opened on 14 December 1911 by Lord Islington, then the Governor of New Zealand, the building is one of the most prominent heritage structures on Queen Street. Costing £126,000 to construct, it was designed by Melbourne architects, JJ & EJ Clarke, their Italian Renaissance Revival building selected from amongst 46 proposals. The five-storey building was specially designed to fit the wedge-shaped piece of land that had been acquired for it at the meeting of Queen Street and Grey Street in the 1870s. It bears a striking resemblance to the new Lambeth Town Hall at Brixton, London built around the same time. The town hall formed Auckland's first permanent seat of both administration and entertainment in the city's history, with its Great Hall (seating 1,673 people) modelled on the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and being considered as having among the finest acoustics in the world.
The exterior is constructed of two types of stone, the ground floor is made of a dark volcanic basalt, heavily rusticated, which contrasts with the pale stonework of the upper stories. Oamaru limestone from the south island was used for the upper part of the building. The lower part is often assumed to be Auckland Basalt but was actually sourced from Melbourne. This was probably due to the architects already having a history of sourcing consistently good quality stone from the quarries there as well as them probably having better heavy duty steam saws to handle the notoriously difficult stone.
The interior contains several varieties of English ceramic surfaces - tessalated floors and glazed ceramic wall tiles. The semi-circular Council Chamber is provided with wood panelling and Art-Nouveau style electric light fittings and stained glass are features of all the main rooms. The ceilings throughout all the main floors are ornamented with good quality plasterwork, the Great Chamber being the most elaborate. The great four sided clock in the tower was donated by Arthur Myers MP (former Mayor) and the Pipe Organ by Sir Henry Brett. The Town Hall project was championed by Myers before and during his time as Mayor (1905–1909) and one of his last acts as Mayor was to lay the foundation stone.
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Excerpt from wellingtoncityheritage.org.nz:
The Wellington Central Fire Station is a good representative example of inter-war public building architecture. The building is notable for its size and scale, for its symmetrical main façade, and for its prominent clock tower.
The building has historic value for its 70 year association with the Wellington Fire Service. The building is also associated with the Wellington Town hall, as the clock in the tower was originally donated to the town hall in 1922 before being transferred to the fire station in 1932.
The fire station is a local landmark, and the building’s size and scale, the prominent clock tower and symmetrical main façade make a strong contribution to the streetscape of Kent Terrace.
The main block of the Central Fire Station fronts onto Oriental Parade with a symmetrical facade and a central tower set well back. Behind this main block there are two wings of two-storey flats overlooking the rear car park. The style of the building is a functional version of Moderne, with some minor Art Deco touches.
The main building has a prominent central entrance, conceived as a shallow bay with five appliance access doors. The piers of the ground floor are continued through the first and second-floor levels as plain pilasters. Deeply recessed windows and spandrels fill the rest of this central component which is capped by a stepped parapet, acroterion, and flagpole. The tall vertical window bands light up the vehicle court behind and demonstrate the functionalism of the design.
The two wings on either side of the centre are a model of plain design, with metal window joinery and a regular pattern of window spacing. String courses above and below the windows tie the composition together somewhat. The line of the parapet is decorated by a zigzag line. The square clock tower carries the profiles and ornament of Art Deco.
The interior of the Central Fire Station, plain and utilitarian, is largely intact, with some simplified Art Deco detailing.
Modifications have been made to some of upstairs accommodation.
This is a functional and rational building in reinforced concrete. In style, it is almost perfectly poised between the historicism of earlier decades, and styleless simplicity of the Modern Movement.
Architectural precedents have been followed in the design of this building, and simplified, but no real departures have been made.
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The buildings of this street are all build in Spanish Mission style.
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