Gordon Wilson Flats, Modernist apartment complex in Te Aro, New Zealand
Gordon Wilson Flats is an 11-storey state housing block on The Terrace, completed in 1959. Its ground floor held 12 bed-sitting rooms, with 75 maisonettes above, housing 131 people in all. The concrete building was designed under government architect F. Gordon Wilson, after whom it was renamed; it was originally called The Terrace Flats.
The foundation stone was laid on 6 August 1957 and the building was completed in 1959 as The Terrace Flats, state housing for lower-paid citizens. It was renamed after government architect F. Gordon Wilson, who died in its final year of construction. Housing New Zealand moved tenants out in May 2012 after structural concerns, and Victoria University of Wellington bought it in 2014 for over $6 million.
The name honours F. Gordon Wilson, a government architect from the 1930s to the 1950s; the building was first called The Terrace Flats and renamed after his death in 1959, its final year of construction. An architectural historian told the council panel the flats are the last of a line of state high-rise social housing begun by the first Labour government in 1935.
The building sits in a central location on The Terrace and is easily accessible from Wellington's downtown area. Since the complex is currently not publicly accessible, visitors can mainly admire its architecture from the outside.
The building's name honours F. Gordon Wilson, a government architect from the 1930s to the 1950s, who died in 1959, the year construction finished; it was first called The Terrace Flats. An architectural historian told the Wellington City Council panel it was the last of the state's high-rise social housing projects, begun under the first Labour government of 1935.
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