The Messines Defence Centre Building in the Upper Hutt provides administrative and training support for New Zealand’s armed forces. The building was constructed in 1980 and accommodates around 300 Army General Staff and other defence personnel. The interior (and exterior) was in need of an update and Maycroft Construction happily undertook the contract for the refurbishment and services upgrade.
The Messines buildings contains a variety of rooms, from lecture theatres through offices and administration areas to kitchenette and breakout rooms. All needed to be completely stripped out and then finished to a high standard to perform as needed, creating an enjoyable environment for staff and reducing future maintenance costs.
On the exterior, blue mosaic tiles on the low level spandrel and high level extension were replaced or overlaid with more modern cladding. The remainder of the exterior had a full repaint.
A large part of the refurbishment were services: for any military organisation, effective and reliable communications are essential. While the extensive integration of fibre, data and security services were installed by NZDF’s own subcontractors (this being sensitive information), Maycroft provided additional structural support. Due to the current speed of technological development, these were all future-proofed. Two-pieced trunking to the perimeter walls allows for expansion of the main office areas and suspended ceilings throughout the main floor areas allow for additional services to be installed wherever and whenever necessary. Existing main service risers were cleaned out to allow services to be run from floor-to-floor.
The building was outside the ‘fence line’, so no additional security was needed. As with any Maycroft building site, thorough, site-specific inductions were carried out for each and every person working on the refurbishment contract, along with all persons signing in and out using the site visitors book.
Maycroft Construction is exceptionally proud of this project; the level of services provided is high and the transformation of the building’s exterior is outstanding.
