Warren and Mahoney appoints new principal to Christchurch studio

Multidisciplinary architecture practice Warren and Mahoney has appointed Vanessa Carswell as a principal in its Christchurch studio.

Carswell was the project architect on the three year rebuild project of the category one listed Isaac Theatre Royal in Christchurch. 

The widely acclaimed project is currently a finalist in the heritage section of the WAF (World Architecture Festival) awards to be judged in Singapore in November, and also a finalist in the performing arts section of the WAN (World Architecture Network) awards where judging will be completed later this month.

Joining Warren and Mahoney as young architectural graduate, Carswell worked for the practice for two years before travelling to the UK. While in London she worked at Grimshaw Architects, before moving to Allies and Morrison Architects. 

Her heritage experience in the UK included work at the grade two listed Great Northern Hotel in Kings Cross. She also contributed to award winning projects such as The Core building, part of the Eden Project in Cornwall, where design work was selected for exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Venice Biennale.

After her return from London in 2009, Carswell rejoined Warren and Mahoneys Christchurch studio and as well as the Isaac Theatre Royal rebuild, she was project architect for the Ruataniwha Kaiapoi Library and Museum, a new cultural and community centre replacing a cluster of earthquake damaged civic buildings, and the University of Otago Plaza Building One.

The Theatre Royal was a dream project, she says, as a lot of feeling and memories were attached to the building and it was important for the social history of Christchurch to restore the theatre to its original state.

Her current project is the historic King Edwards Barracks site for Ngai Tahu Property where she leads the design team. This project, which extends over a riverside block between Hereford and Cashel streets and Montreal Street and Cambridge Terrace, will incorporate four office buildings with retail on the ground floor, as well as apartments, a carpark building, and a pocket park.

Carswell says she always wanted to be an architect and her mother still has plans she drew at the age of seven.

Architecture has always been my passion and I feel really proud to be appointed as a principal of the (Warren and Mahoney) practice.

"I have been lucky in that I have been privileged to work on a broad mix of buildings, which I enjoy. I like new challenges and seeing things from beginning to end. I definitely like civic buildings. They are more complex on the briefing side and they are challenging but rewarding."

Carswell says that the practice has had amazing comments from Kaiapoi locals about the Ruataniwha Centre.

The community was so disrupted after the earthquakes and the centre has encouraged people to meet and socialise again.

That is one of the strongest rewards and achievements for us, as architects, to see people using and enjoying buildings we have designed.

Warren and Mahoney's managing director, Peter Marshall, said that Vanessa Carswell had already made a valuable contribution to the practice.

It might have been disheartening for Vanessa to have experienced the earthquakes so soon after her arrival back from the UK. However, like so many of the practice's architects, she was determined to play an active role in the rebuild of the city. The fact that the Isaac Theatre Royal has been chosen as a finalist in the WAF awards is testament to her devotion to the project and to architecture.

"I am delighted to have Vanessa as a principal in our team and I am sure she will continue to make a strong contribution to the Christchurch rebuild, and to our growing portfolio of national and international projects."