Building Te Unua Museum of Southland: one year on

When it comes to a huge build like Te Unua Museum of Southland, the milestones come thick and fast.

This week marks the first anniversary of when physical work to begin the build of Murihiku Southland’s new museum kicked off.

Invercargill City Council Senior Project Manager Haydyn Taylor said the milestone was a symbolic one for the wider team working to build the museum.

Design and build contractor Naylor Love, and its various subcontractors, had done a fantastic job to ensure the progress continued at pace, he said.

“On any given day, we’ve got between 40 and 60 tradespeople here. It will really be business as usual on-site, but it is a pretty cool occasion to chalk up in the back of your mind,” he said.

“The most satisfying elements of a build like this always tend to be the large, visible items: in this case things like pouring the concrete for the floors, installing the concrete precast panels around the west building perimeter – we’ve got 50 panels, each weighing around 11 tonnes  – and craning in the structural steel to finish off the bones of the structure.

“The double-hulled waka will appear to float in mid-air, above the central foyer, and having the structural steel in place to hold it has made a really visible difference on-site. It’s given us a real, tangible sense of just how show-stopping that feature of the museum is going to be,” he said.

“While there are still plenty of milestones to chalk up yet, it’s has been a great opportunity to reflect on what we have managed to tick off together so far.”

Naylor Love Project Manager Nick Jones said the focus for the team during the last quarter of the year would largely be on ensuring the build was weather-tight.

This would include completing the roof on the eastern building – set to house amenities such as the cafe, retail space, education space, and staff offices – as well as cladding on the walls, and exterior windows and doors.

The focus for the west building was now mainly internal, with services and linings to the exhibition spaces next on the agenda, he said.

“There is a genuine point of pride on-site, that what we’re all involved in bringing to life is a significant project for the entire Southland community – not just today, but for the generations that follow as well. It’s quite a privilege to be involved in its development.”