Naylor Love, a private construction company, was formed in 1969 with the merger of the two companies, W H Naylor Ltd and The Love Construction Company Ltd, which had already played a major role in the development of New Zealand for 60 years.
Naylor Love’s mission is “to deliver measurably the best construction services for its clients”. The company has won many awards, including the Registered Master Builders Commercial Project of the Year award on three occasions.
While its head office remains in Dunedin, Naylor Love is represented by divisions in Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury, Dunedin and Central Otago.
Recent projects
During its 100-year history, Naylor Love has constructed and redeveloped some extremely interesting buildings. One of the more intricate is Alpine Aqualand in Queenstown, a world-class swimming pool and leisure complex, which was the winner of the Registered Master Builders Commercial Project of the Year in 2009.
The centre’s interior features, such as a winding “lazy” river and a mountain waterfall, resemble the local landscape.
Superb sports facilities have also been constructed for schools. In 2004/5, Naylor Love constructed a new gymnasium, the Marsh Sports Centre, for Columba College, a Dunedin girls’ secondary school.
The complex also won the Registered Master Builders Commercial Project of the Year in 2006, along with the Education Project award.
Naylor Love is building the new Q Theatre for professional arts, due to open at the end of 2011, in the heart of Auckland City. The world-class auditorium will have flexible staging which can be moved into a range of different layouts, and provide seating for 350 to 450 people. The project also involves the refurbishment of an existing four-storey heritage building.
Naylor Love has carried out many educational projects over the years for tertiary institutes and schools. Long gone are the days when schools were built to a standard Department of Education design, no matter where they were located.
Three newly completed schools have incorporated the wishes of staff and the local community, both for teaching spaces and the outside environment, in their unique designs. Each has incorporated environmentally-sustainable principles.
Snells Beach School, north of Auckland, one of the first schools to be designed under the New Zealand Green Building Council School Tool, was the Education Project category winner in the Auckland Registered Master Builder Association House of the Year awards in 2009.
The building design of the new Remarkables Primary School at Frankton, Queenstown, was developed to enhance and capture the wonderful lakeside and mountain surrounds. Outside spaces connect to classroom learning areas, including the roof area, where a boardwalk and environmental planting meander along the roofline. All aspects of environmentally-aware design were considered.
Naylor Love managing director Trevor Kempton says the company recognises that an environmentally-sensitive construction process is an integral part of environmental sustainability
“A standard part of any offer of service by Naylor Love is to review the related building design, rate it in terms of the Green Star system, and make suggestions to maximise its rating,” Mr Kempton says.
Up and down New Zealand, Naylor Love has also constructed some large retail complexes. Lockwood Naylor (a joint venture between McMillan & Lockwood and Naylor Love formed to undertake major work in the central North Island) has recently turned The Plaza, Palmerston North, into a contemporary mall.
This was one of the first projects in New Zealand to use 5D BIM (building information modelling), allowing the project team to track the project “virtually” forwards and backwards in time, play out “what-if” scenarios and come to grips with complex logistics and buildability issues.
The advantages to the project team of using 5D BIM were invaluable — greater certainty, co-ordination and innovative practice.
In April 2003, Naylor Love formed a joint venture company, The Warehouse Naylor Love (TWNL), to provide pre-construction management services on all of The Warehouse projects throughout New Zealand. By 2009, Naylor Love had built about $150 million worth of projects for The Warehouse from Whangarei to Invercargill.
The 33,000 sq m, one-level South Island Distribution Centre for The Warehouse has the largest footprint of any building in the South Island.
Ian Hartshorne, national property manager for The Warehouse at the time, acknowledged Naylor Love. “We value the effort and attention to detail. Your ongoing support to assist The Warehouse has met all expectations on a project of this magnitude.”
The architecture and colours of the three Remarkables Park Town Centre buildings, all constructed by Naylor Love in Frankton, Queenstown, reflect the surrounding landscapes of mountains, tussocks and water.
Dart House won an Otago Registered Master Builders Association award in 2007. A fourth building is presently being constructed.
On Dunedin’s main street, the Wall Street Precinct is an enclosed streetscape in keeping with the city’s character. The unique retail complex has undercover links providing access to the adjacent Golden Centre and Meridian Shopping Malls.
In two major redevelopments of shopping malls, the 1990s Logan Plaza retail precinct was transformed into the Trentham City Shopping Centre, winning the Wellington Registered MasterBuilders Association retail and business category award in 2007.
And the old suburban Shirley Mall in Christchurch was transformed into The Palms, setting new standards for suburban shopping.
Naylor Love has built many health facilities, with all the intricacies that go with such projects. The rapidly increasing demand for elective surgery drove the redevelopment of the Mercy Hospital in Dunedin.
Wanganui Base Hospital underwent a complex redevelopment in 2004. The project, by Lockwood Naylor, involved demolition of a large part of the existing hospital, refurbishment of what was left standing, and the construction of the new perioperative block and acute services building.
Several redevelopment projects at Hutt Hospital included a breast screening unit, MRI and CRT scanning facility, and a caesarian and early birthing ward. A later stage involved relocatable temporary operating theatres.
Naylor Love has recently been involved in the construction of several very interesting workplaces. When finished, Pipitea Plaza, a 10-level office block in Thorndon, Wellington, will be tenanted by a government department.
Built to a 5 Green Star rating (under the New Zealand Green Building Council’s green star design tool), the design is innovative. Naylor Love extensively used 3D modelling for cross checking of detailing between design disciplines, shop drawings, and as a primary tool for services co-ordination.
To house leading architectural practice, Jasmax, environmentally-sustainable design and construction were paramount to the project. A tired existing warehouse was refurbished and a purpose-designed extension added.
The project was awarded a New Zealand Institute of Architects 2009 Local Auckland Architecture Award – Interior Architecture, and the Gold Award in the 2009 Best Design Awards – Office and Workplace Environments.
The Post Office Precinct, covering an entire block in Queenstown’s central business district, includes Queenstown Courthouse, the Pig and Whistle Hotel and three other new office buildings. The first phase of the development was the refurbishment and fit-out of the historic courthouse, which carries a category 1 Historic Places Trust classification.
Many multi-storey accommodation blocks have been built by Naylor Love in Queenstown and Dunedin. Because the tourist mecca of the Wakatipu Basin is one of the fastest growing areas in New Zealand and because of the burgeoning student population in Dunedin, the demand for accommodation keeps increasing.
Built on a prime site at the gateway to Queenstown are the Pounamu Apartments, comprising 68 luxury units. The whole site has been linked by walkways and a roadway to provide a modern alpine community atmosphere.
Another large Queenstown accommodation project is the recently completed Kingston West Hotel, the showpiece for the vast Kawarau Falls Station complex.
The dairy boom was responsible for Naylor Love’s role in the construction of a dry milk powder plant at Studholme in South Canterbury.
Construction was an ambitious undertaking, with the turning of the first sod to the production of milk powder achieved in 12 months. Naylor Love built a new 4500 sq m dry store, boiler house and drying tower which was 30m high, with intermediate floors at 18m and 25m.
The New Zealand Dairies Ltd plant was recognised as the fastest-constructed drying plant in New Zealand.
Naylor Love has carried out a variety of civil projects over the years. St Clair beach is a surfing paradise, 10 minutes by car from the centre of Dunedin city. The original St Clair
Esplanade was constructed by the city in 1913 as a protection against erosion of the sand dunes. The 300m sea wall became a popular promenade.
But by 1990, the wall was in a sad state. Naylor Love was awarded the civil engineering contract, late in 2003, to build a new, 450m-long sea wall, with 200m of sand dune stability works and remodelling of the existing roadway into a pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare.
The Southern Water Treatment Plant, Dunedin — two storage reservoirs and a smaller contact reservoir — was built for the Dunedin City Council, with whom Naylor Love worked to redesign the floor.
This project was warded the Ingenium Award for projects over $200,000 in 2006. Mr Kempton says the reservoirs include the best quality pre-cast and in-situ concrete work he thinks the company has ever produced.
The attractive 80 metre-long O’Regan’s Wharf was built at Lake Esplanade in Queenstown as a design and build project in 2007. For large and small berths, the wharf connects Steamer Wharf to St Omer Wharf. The project also entailed substantial landscaping of the area.
Historic projects
By the time Naylor Love was formed by the merger of Love Construction and W H Naylor Ltd in 1969, both companies had an impressive list of achievements, constructing some very high profile buildings, many of which endure today.
Love and Fletcher undertook several joint ventures, including the buildings for the 1925-26 NZ and South Seas International Exhibition in Dunedin and the 1940-41 Centennial Exhibition in
Wellington, and the Social Security and Health Department building in Wellington.
Opened in 1930, the Dunedin Town Hall is a good example of Love Brothers’ first-class craftsmanship. The building has been described as “one of the finest places of public assembly in New Zealand”.
The Regent Theatre in Dunedin, also built by Love Brothers, was opened in 1928. Upgraded since it was built, the theatre is still in use today.
A niche market for W H Naylor was building many of Dunedin’s stately homes. The Mater Hospital (re-named the Mercy Hospital), the Evening Star building (now the headquarters of Allied Press) and the original dental school (now a Zoology Department building) remain prominent Naylor landmarks in Dunedin.
The future
Naylor Love’s vision is to grow in size and in capability to become widely recognised as one of the top four commercial construction companies in New Zealand.
“To be measurably the best is a lofty ideal, but recent history has shown that it is an attainable goal,” Mr Kempton says.
Naylor Love board of directors chairman Don Stock says the company’s future will be based on the foundations of the past 100 years.
“The opportunities are there for Naylor Love to become one of New Zealand’s leading national construction companies, significantly larger than today, and leading the way through being measurably the best.”
