Costly Dunedin stadium scores national commercial building award

Dunedin’s controversial Forsyth Barr Stadium – the country’s first undercover stadium – has won the supreme honour in the New Zealand Commercial Project Awards announced at a national gala event in Auckland.

The award comes just a year after Dunedin City Council was forced to investigate the funding of the stadium, when costs blew out to $224 million from $188 million.

That followed revelations that the council never checked Carisbrook Stadium Trust invoices.

The stadium was built to replace the dilapidated Carisbrook Stadium and it was suggested that unless a new stadium was built there would be no Rugby World Cup games inthe city.

However, up against more than 40 of the country’s top commercial buildings, the Forsyth Barr Stadium, built by Hawkins Construction South Island, was described as “a magnificent tour de force”, “a project of firsts” and “a credit to all involved”. 

The project was also awarded a Gold and Category Winner prize for the Industrial category, and top project over $15 million.

“From the unique snow-melt valves in the translucent ETFE plastic roof to the indoor natural grass pitch, the Forsyth Barr Stadium impressed us with the sheer volume of man hours (1,370,000), meticulous planning and creative approach that saw the team continually searching for ways to ‘do it smarter’,” the judges said.

Sponsored by industry heavyweights PlaceMakers, James Hardie, NALCO, GIB and Allied Concrete, the inaugural awards programme – which evolved from the RMB Commercial Project Awards first launched in 2006 – recognises the country’s top commercial buildings and the teams behind them.

Category winners were:

* Restoration: Blacksheep Design, Palmerston North (Humphries Construction) – Gold

* Retail: Kaiapoi New World Supermarket, Christchurch (Leigh’s Construction) – Gold

* Education: Scots College Creative and Performing Arts Centre, Wellington (Field and Hall Ltd) – Gold

* Health: St John Ambulance, Gisborne (D Stevens Ltd) – Gold

* Residential: Christchurch Temporary Accommodation Linwood Park/Kaiapoi Domain (Hawkins Construction South Island Ltd) – Bronze

* Commercial and Civic: Christchurch Civic Building (Hawkins Construction South Island Ltd) – Gold

* Industrial: Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin (Hawkins Construction South Island Ltd) – Gold

*Tourism and Leisure: The Rippon Hall, Rippon Vineyard, Wanaka (Amalgamated Builders) – Gold

* Project under $2 million: Blacksheep Design, Palmerston North (Humphries Construction)

* Project between $2 million and $5 million: The Rippon Hall, Rippon Vineyard, Wanaka (Amalgamated Builders)

* Project $5 million to $15 million: Scots College Creative and Performing Arts Centre, Wellington (Field and Hall Ltd)

* Project over $15 million: Forsyth Barr Stadium, Dunedin (Hawkins Construction South Island Ltd)

* Special award: Kimi Ora School, Lower Hutt (Maycroft Construction).