Waipū

KEEPsmilingWORDS: MATT PHILP

When a Covid-19 lockdown trapped her project manager in Auckland, Lindy Davis stepped in to lead the major restoration of a Waipū landmark building

1 Lindy Davis in the former bank manager’s lounge.

2 One of the restored spaces has a sunny deck and has been plumbed for a commercial kitchen.

IMAGERY: JASON DORDAY I t’s a measure of her love of heritage that Lindy Davis used to feel a pang of anxiety whenever she drove past the landmark 1920s former bank building in Waipū.

A Category 2 historic place, the commercial building and attached residence housed a medical centre after the National Bank upped stakes in the late 1980s. But for several years it had sat empty, unloved and increasingly derelict – or, as Lindy puts it, “The building was really starting to lose its legs”. Naturally, she bought it.

Earlier this year a crowd of 80 watched Whangārei Mayor Sheryl Mai cut the ribbon to officially open the renovated bank building, reborn as a commercial hub under the moniker ‘Nova Scotia Junction’ (a nod to its location on the corner of Nova Scotia Drive and Cove Road on the main route out of town).

A seven-month project that Lindy ended up leading when a Covid-19 lockdown stranded her project manager in Auckland has restored the building’s polished rimu floorboards, lost for decades under lino and carpet.

The large leadlight windows have been reinstated, and hours of hand sanding and the liberal use of Danish oil have transformed the rimu staircase. During renovations, three original fireplaces were uncovered and laboriously rehabilitated.

“They put in a huge amount of energy and didn’t cut any corners to bring it back to something like its original look,” says architectural designer Adam Welford, whose practice, Maxar Architecture, has leased a couple of sunny first-floor rooms at Nova Scotia Junction.

“All the doors are exposed rimu, as are the floors, it’s got a high stud, and they put some of the old hardware back. We get a lot of comments from people coming up the staircase to our office. They love the feel of it.”

None of it came easy. Lindy, a freelance journalist and author whose previous renovation experience was limited to her own homes, says the building had been unoccupied for a long time before she took the plunge.

“Other people probably had a better understanding of just how much work was involved!” she says.

Fortunately, she had plenty of help. Her son Jordan came in as a partner in the venture. “He and my husband and our kids were all heavily engaged – there was a lot of hands-on work.”

Ashwood Construction from Kaiwaka tackled the building work, and Lindy was able to engage a few more local builders and tradies for the rest.

In addition, Lindy drew on the expertise of the Northland Regional Office of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.

“You could be tempted to hide imperfections, but if it was there and original, I wanted to see it”

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“It was a priority for me to make sure the heritage status stayed as it was,” she says, adding that one of her first actions after buying the building was to call the national historic heritage agency.

“I got a good grasp of where to start and what to do, as well as the plans and some photographs of the original bank. To be true to a heritage building, you really want to know how it looked and functioned.”

The 1924 building had modest beginnings as a single-storey timber structure, but it grew as the stocks of both the National Bank and Waipū rose. In 1936 it became an official branch, and the following year a comfortable two-storey residence was built alongside it for the bank manager and his family.

Bill Edwards, Area Manager Northland for Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, says the bank would have been the heart of Waipū, a rural community south of Whangārei that was founded in the 1850s by Highland Scots. (They came to Northland via Canada, hence the Nova Scotia reference.)

“Banks weren’t stingy with their buildings, so it was built using the best of the best. It had good bones,” he adds.

Lindy says the renovation gave her insights into the craftsmanship that went into buildings of the day. The timber joinery, for instance, struck her as superior to anything factory-produced today. Replacing the bits that couldn’t be saved was one of the project’s trickiest challenges.

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“I tried to keep as much joinery as possible, but some of it had rotted through, so I got joinery made up that was identical to the original,” she says. “That wasn’t easy.

“We also replaced five out of the seven big picture windows and we did it like for like. They had to have beaded frames and multiple openings, so it was complicated.”

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More effort went into peeling back years of modifications and accretions to get to the fabric of the original building.

“After the bank closed, it became the Waipū medical practice,” says Lindy. “Lino was put down, and a large number of consulting rooms and other things were added. I wanted to take all of that away. So the lino came up, and we took out all the carpets in the doctor’s residence to get back to the rimu.”

The rimu doors and window frames had been painted over numerous times.

“I had them all stripped back, which was a real labour of love,” says Lindy.

“There were also three fireplaces that had been covered up. One was behind a walk-in wardrobe, sealed off with a gibbed wall. It was a mess when we opened it up. It took Craig, our local builder, two weeks to get them back to mint condition.”

There were times, however, when a hands-off approach was called for. At one point, for instance, the original bank vault was uncovered, complete with the signature of the layer who’d done the original pour preserved in the concrete.

“The vault was a bit rough, but we fought the urge to tidy it up too much. Instead we just laid some heritage-style tiles, cleaned the original walls and left them. You could be tempted to hide imperfections, but if it was there and original, I wanted to see it.”

Bill Edwards likes the balance that was struck.

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“It’s important with buildings to maintain as much of the heritage fabric as possible, but also to adapt and reuse. That’s what’s happened here,” he says.

“What they’ve done is revitalise a building that was suffering neglect and brought it back to life.”

Lindy says her goal was always twofold: rescue an elegant heritage building, and make sure it’s used by and accessible to the community. As well as the architectural practice, rooms have been leased by a mortgage broker and a clothing boutique. She hopes that one of the last three untenanted spaces will be used to sell local produce, and the other, which has been plumbed for a commercial kitchen and has an outdoor deck, for hospitality.

“I’d love to see somebody open a vibrant restaurant there. The vault would make an amazing wine cellar!”

Whoever fills the space, she’s “super-satisfied” with how the project has worked out – and is no longer anxious about it.

“I smile when I drive past the building now.”

1 Nova Scotia Junction has captured the hearts of locals in Waipū.

2 The original bank vault now tiled and warmly illuminated by an antique chandelier.

3 Nova Scotia Junction’s grand entrance with polished rimu floors and a sweeping staircase.

4 Maxar Architecture’s firstfloor office with rimu floor/ joinery and an original brick fireplace discovered behind a walk-in wardrobe.

5 The old bank manager’s lounge with restored rimu floors, French joinery and a brick fireplace ready for a creative restaurateur.

IMAGERY: JASON DORDAY