New Zealand Parliament Buildings

Story

The New Zealand Parliament Buildings house the New Zealand Parliament and are on a 45,000 square metre site at the northern end of Lambton Quay, Wellington. They consist of the Edwardian neoclassical-style Parliament House (1922); the Parliamentary Library (1899); the executive wing, called "The Beehive" (1979); and Bowen House, in use since 1991. Whilst most of the individual buildings are outstanding for different reasons, the overall setting that has been achieved "has little aesthetic or architectural coherence".Parliament HouseThe main building of the complex is Parliament House, containing the debating chamber, Speaker's office, visitors' centre, and committee rooms.Predecessor building burned downAn earlier wooden Parliament House was destroyed by fire in 1907 along with all other parliament buildings except the library, which was constructed of masonry. In addition, the library had an iron fire-door that saved its collections.Replacement buildingA competition to find a replacement design was announced by Prime Minister Joseph Ward in February 1911 and 33 designs were entered. The winning design, by Government Architect John Campbell, was selected by Colonel Vernon, former Government Architect for New South Wales. As another of Campbell's entries won fourth place, the actual design is a combination of both entries. The design was divided into two stages. The first half, a Neoclassical building, contained both chambers and the second half Bellamy's and a new Gothic Revival library to replace the existing one.