The archi­tect behind the story of the shap­ing of Timaru

By Roselyn Fauth

In the final instal­ment of a four-part series, Timaru Civic Trust mem­ber Roselyn Fauth looks at the archi­tect behind sev­eral of the town’s land­marks.

Over the past few weeks we’ve stood on Stafford St, looked toward Car­oline Bay, and paused in the Botanic Gar­dens.

We’ve traced the stor­ies of the Ōrari Build­ings, the Hydro Grand Hotel and the South Can­ter­bury War Memorial.

There is one name con­nect­ing them all – the archi­tect Her­bert Wil­liam Hall.

Born in Christ­ch­urch in 1884, Hall stud­ied at Can­ter­bury Col­lege School of Art under Samuel Hurst Seager and won a gold medal prize in archi­tec­ture while still a stu­dent.

He moved to Timaru in 1908, the same year the North Island Main Trunk rail­way opened, trans­form­ing the way tour­ism oper­ated in New Zea­l­and.

In Timaru he entered into a part­ner­ship with civil engin­eer Fre­d­er­ick Marchant.

Together they designed the Hydro Grand Hotel in 1912. The Hydro was con­struc­ted as Timaru developed its port resort devel­op­ment.

Later, work­ing inde­pend­ently, Hall designed both the Ōrari Build­ings and the South Can­ter­bury War Memorial at the Timaru Botanic Gar­dens in 1925.

Hall’s influ­ence exten­ded far bey­ond South Can­ter­bury. In 1928 he designed the Chat­eau Tongariro in Tongariro National Park, which opened in 1929.

Owned by the New Zea­l­and Gov­ern­ment’s tour­ism depart­ment, the lux­uri­ous neo-Geor­gian hotel stood in delib­er­ate con­trast to the dra­matic vol­canic land­scape behind it. Pub­li­city imagery of the period showed eleg­antly dressed guests step­ping from a refined por­tico into the alpine wil­der­ness. The rail­way had opened the cent­ral plat­eau to trav­el­lers, and Hall’s design helped shape New Zea­l­and’s emer­ging tour­ism iden­tity.

In 1935, Hall was awar­ded the New Zea­l­and Insti­tute of Archi­tects’ Gold Medal for St David’s Memorial Church at Cave, the pro­fes­sion’s highest hon­our.

He died in Temuka in 1940, aged 57. Hall’s leg­acy of built her­it­age con­tin­ued on through his son Humphrey.

His son, Humphrey Hall (1912-1988), also became an archi­tect. In 1938–39, Humphrey designed his own house at 11 Park Lane in Timaru, now a Cat­egory A her­it­age build­ing.

Flat-roofed, with strip win­dows, pilotis and a roof garden, it was one of New Zea­l­and’s earli­est Mod­ern­ist houses and marked a dra­matic shift from his father’s clas­sical lan­guage. I have been inside, and it is really inter­est­ing prop­erty, while the spiral stair­case is stun­ning.

After serving in World War II and sur­viv­ing as a pris­oner of war, Humphrey later entered into part­ner­ship as Hall and MacK­en­zie.

In 1958, the firm co-designed the Her­mit­age Hotel at Mount Cook, earn­ing national recog­ni­tion and a Gold Medal from the Insti­tute of Archi­tects.

Within one fam­ily, archi­tec­ture in New Zea­l­and moved from clas­sical columns to Mod­ern­ist forms over a gen­er­a­tion.

When we look at the Ōrari Build­ings, stand at the War Memorial, or drive past the Mod­ern­ist house on Park Lane, we are see­ing two archi­tects named Hall – father and son – shap­ing Timaru at dif­fer­ent moments in its his­tory.

They are two gen­er­a­tions of archi­tects who helped define how this town wanted oth­ers to see itself.