French Memorial, Pukeahu

Le Calligramme, the French Memorial at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park, is a gift from France to New Zealand to mark the one hundredth anniversary of World War I. The design by Patterson Associates combines extensive landscaping with two large elements made of local stone and crushed French Combe Brune stone from the Western Front, with brass inscriptions in French, Māori and English.

Our Wellington team contributed extensive pre-construction technical advice to the project and helped re-design structural details, which involved making the heavy stone memorials look delicately balanced. The stone mix for the intricate 50Mpa precast memorials and the 30Mpa in-situ slab had never been used before, and required a detailed sampling process along with a number of different acid etched finishes.

The completed memorial is stunning, and this is a project we’re very proud to have been a part of.