Before and after in building’s history
By
BRONWYN JONES
It has taken about 3750 work hours and about 5120,000 to transform the 79-year-old O’Briens building in Dundas Street. The old, drab, greypainted building at No. 31, near Smiths City Market, now shines new-brick red. The rotten and dirty interior has been cleaned, strengthened, tiled, painted, carpeted and sandblasted.
The building was built in 1901 for Michael O’Brien, the Irish ‘forefather of O’Brien’s footwear, now located in Burnside. In 1967, it was sold to Scott Brothers, Ltd; and, after O’Briens moved out ini 1975, the building was used for storage.
The new co-owners are lan Rowlands, Dennis White and Gary White, directors of Wraggs Manufacturing, Ltd. Gary White, who is the brains behind the restoration and redesigning of the building, is also a director of Wraggs Sportswear, Ltd, as is Mr Rowlands. All three owners feel that the cost of doing up the old-timer was worth it. They bought' the building from Atlas Majestic Industries. Ltd, in Novem-
ber last year and took possession this March. The old building was a mess before restoration began. The floor area was 1394 sq. m. “We had to take up much of the flooring downstairs because it was rotten and smelly,” said Mr John Wilson, proprietor of the contracting firm that has been restoring the building.
“The floor was so- rotten that the legs of a trestle went through it and a carpenter standing on the
trestle fell through a window to the street. “The Christchurch City Council thought a bulldozer should be put through the place, but we thought it would come up nice.”
After mdre than 400 hours of sandblasting, the bricks, which have been waterproofed with a silicone coating, have come up a traditional, shiny red. Although most of the interior walls are painted creamy mustard, the brickwork has been used to its best advantage in
the showroom and offices. “There was dust for miles around when we were sandblasting,” said Mr Wilson. “Red dust drifted all over the road, and car sales owners in the area came back to work on Monday mornings to find their cars covered with it.
“Because of the dust problem, sandblasting took us five week-ends instead of three. But the cost at about $6OOO was still cheaper than painting the building.”
The rabbit warren of old-fashioned, glass-parti-tioned offices has been replaced by an open plan, divided by eye-height walls covered with cloth and painted white. The administration area and stairs are carpeted in red throughout.
The 915 windows have had their frames repainted, and many were reglazed. The narrow stairway from Dundas Street has been replaced by a wider, more luxurious one. Another staircase has been shifted from in-
side to the back yard for staff access to benches in the landscaped carpark.
About ■ 230 litres of floor-patching compound was used upstairs and downstairs and the first floor and the floor in the warehouse downstairs were covered with hardboard, then tiled. The main area on the ground floor w'as beyond repair and was concreted instead. The ceiling upstairs, which rises to about 5m in the middle, has been lowered to save on heating.
A dangerous goods storage shed and staff toilets in the yard have been demolished and the area landscaped. But the boilerhouse has remained. Heating by coal has been found cheaper than by electricity or oil, and the boilerhouse is regarded by the owners as a bonus to the purchase. “The building and yard have cost a lot to do up, but we have cut costs substantially through Kiwi ingenuity,” Mr Wilson said.
“Also, the total cost of the building, land and alterations was still only about one-third of the cost of putting up a new building.”
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