Museum of Wellington City and Sea

The Museum of Wellington City and Sea is housed in The Bond Store, a Historic Place Category 1 reinforced concrete structure, built in 1892 and located on the Wellington waterfront.

As part of a refurbishment project to celebrate Wellington’s 150th year, we installed structural steel bracing frames in the ceiling spaces of the two top floors and a structural steel support system for the new glass cladding to the external stair tower, and completely refurbished the top floor attic area.

The attic was reconfigured to increase the museum’s display space by nearly a third. We sourced and replaced borer-damaged wooden columns and rafters to improve the structural integrity, carefully matching them with the old timbers.

Other works included the installation of a new warm roof over the existing roof membrane, and replacement of the entire air conditioning plant on the roof, all while ensuring a smooth transition from the old system to the new to protect the precious displays.

We worked collaboratively with the consultants throughout this enormously successful project to identify and overcome all issues as they arose, and with the museum staff to ensure that the museum could stay open with minimal disruption to visitors.