Long before the Old Arcade Bank was constructed, the same space used to be occupied by John Plimmer’s ‘inconstant’ Ark. In 1849, the Ark was salvaged by John and then converted into a warehouse.
In 1899 Thomas Turnbull and his son planned on building a New Head Office for the Bank of New Zealand (founded in 1861). The contract offered a design structure similar to the one seen today. The building opened on the first of July of 1901.
Even though the Arcade has many different artefacts that relate back to classicism, baroque, gothic revival and even modernism, its architectural functionalism and structure relate mainly to Greek neo-classical architecture. The correlation between the Bank’s design and classicism can be easily identified. The use of white and yellow marble, patterns of carved wood, many Corinthian columns, Greek Gods’ statues, decorative floors, ceilings, staircases and even windows.
Strongly rusticated, the ground floor of the building displays detailed patterns of shells on the walls, a tessellated floor, and highly developed Kauri furniture. The second floor displays mainly the classical ionic Greek columns.
The building also has an underground corridor the leads to the Bank’s Board Room, where in a form of the director’s chair, there is an antique exhibition that explains about the history of Plimmer’s Ark and how that same space used to be above water. Many timbers from his Ark are still conserved and at display in the Board Room.
At the time of the Arcade’s construction, Baroque architecture style was very fashionable and valued in England for commercial buildings. For this reason, the choice of classical architecture with decorative styles from Edwardian Baroque was pleasingly accurate. The building was very successful and in 1986 it was converted from a Bank to a normal retail and commercial environment. And here is an example of appreciate neo-classical art around Europe (Finland) at the time.
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| XL. Johann Carl Ludwig Engel, Senate, Helsinki, 1818-22 |
Middleton, R., & Watkin, D. (1990). Neoclassical and 19th Century Architecture/2. London, England: Electa S.p.A.
Historic Places Trust. (2010). Bank of New Zealand Building (No 1). http://www.historic.org.nz/TheRegister/RegisterSearch/RegisterResults.aspx?RID=212&m=advanced
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