200 West Block

Planning for our future

We have a vision to make Hastings the city centre of choice. This vision is guided by the goals and projects we’ve set in our strategies and Long Term Plan. These strategies are centered around bringing more vibrancy, more creativity, more innovative thinking, more quality open spaces and connections, more inner city living and more cultural diversity into our city centre.

They include the Hastings City Centre strategy and our Hastings City Centre Revitalisation Plan.

The transformation of 200 West block is just one of many projects in the Hastings City Centre Revitalisation Plan.

We’ve planned carefully to ensure we’re retaining our sense of place, heritage, character and identity, as well as allowing for growth and future-proofing our city.

Honouring our past

PRE-1867

Hastings was built out of the wetlands and streams of Heretaunga Haukūnui, the bountiful riverine basin formed by the Tūtaekurī, Ngaruroro, Waitio, Awanui, and Tukituki Rivers. Where Hastings was established once flowed a significant anabranch of the Ngaruroro, known as the Mākaramū, from which the Karamū Plains is named. The Mākaramū split in two, with another channel formed, which had the name Mākirikiri. Today the Mākaramū can be seen in its natural course at Cornwall Park, and the Mākirikiri can be seen at Windsor Park.

Before the major floods of the 1850s-60s, Heretaunga Haukūnui was the main source of industry and sustenance for mana whenua. Abounding across the rich plain were pākura swamp hens, pūtangitangi ducks, poaka pigs known as ‘Captain Cooker’s’ all roaming through raupō rushes, pūrei sedges, and toetoe cutting grass. The wetlands flourished with tuna eels, ika fish, and various angarua shellfish.

Across the plain were well established trails that traversed the high ground avoiding the bogs and dense harakeke phormium tenax. Knowing how to get across the plains was important for survival, and getting lost or stepping off the track could lead to fatal consequences.

Major flooding in 1867 changed the course of the Ngaruroro and removed almost entirely the Mākaramū anabranch, which continued to be spring-fed from beneath the gravels around what is now Saint Leonards. It was in this context in which the landscape of Heretaunga Haukūnui was to change forever as Europeans saw the potential for a town.

Interested in learning more about the history of Hastings?

In 1960 Hastings District Council appointed M.B. Boyd to write and produce a history of Hastings. You can find this book at our libraries and online.

1920s

As Hastings grew, so did its economy. In 1912 the property on the corner of Market and Queen Streets was sold to the Hawke’s Bay Farmers Co-operative Association (HBF).
HBF was selling vehicles by October 1912, when they had “motor cars” on display at the Hawke’s Bay A & P Show. They were agents for Overland and Hupmobile.
The Buick agency (which was prominent for decades) was added in 1914.

In June 1925, HBF revealed plans to build an onsite garage to sell and service Buick motor cars. Upon their opening HBF advertised the sale of benzene from bowsers (petrol pumps drawing from large underground tanks) for Big Tree, Voco and Shell.

Since buying the corner site next door in 1912 HBF used the premises for a number of things including a grocery and provision store, a boot seller and ironmongery, china and crockery retail and the engineering and implement workshop.

In 1929 a fire destroyed that whole building.

A new three storey building was designed by one of New Zealand’s eminent architects, Edmund Anscombe. It was constructed on earthquake and fire resistant principles and opened in September 1930 (only five months before the 1931 earthquake).

The earthquake did not trouble the new building.

This is just a small snippet of the history. Read more about HB Farmer’s Co-operative and their history in this Michael Fowler report.

Protecting our historic heritage and natural environments

Council plays a crucial role in identifying and protecting Hastings’ historic heritage and natural environment, in all its forms.
Built heritage includes both publicly- and privately-owned structures across Hastings, such as churches, bridges, schools, monuments, houses and commercial buildings. They help tell the story of our city and its people.

The community loves our heritage buildings and we need to honour what we can.

So why is the past so important now?

It’s our job to ensure that our historical foundations are recognised and retained, while at the same time protecting our community from risks posed by earthquake-prone buildings.
We also need to work to the rules and guidelines set out in our District Plan and Resource Management Act (1991). These documents guide what can and can’t be done, and make sure we’re taking everything into account when making changes.

How do you design buildings and spaces that factor in heritage?

We’ve got a lot of information about Hastings and its history. We consulted with heritage experts to make sure we understand what’s important about a location, building and wider environment.

From here our project team use this information when they’re pulling together a project.

When a project is proposing significant change to the use of a building or area, it all has to be outlined and presented in a resource consent application. The consent needs to include information on the heritage of the site, and how the project will protect and promote heritage.  

We also work to Te Aranga Design Principles

Hastings District Council has adopted Te Aranga Design Principles. These are a cultural landscape strategy/approach to design thinking and making which incorporates Māori cultural values.

They’re a really powerful tool for ensuring projects encompass mana whenua and our taonga here in Hastings.

How does this project honour the past?

The area’s history as a wetland, before the 1867 floods changed the landscape, will be represented in the pocket park through native plantings, fed by innovative rainwater gardens. It is envisaged that the theme will carry on through the laneway leading to Heretaunga St, using kōwhaiwhai, tukutuku and tāniko artforms.

Significant to the immediate area, post-European settlement and reflected in elements of the design are the original Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Co-operative Association garage and services site, and the Art Deco Zig-Zag Moderne architectural buildings that become so prevalent after the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake. We will be keeping the Farmers’ Co-op façade, and reusing steel trusses from in the building for architectural elements.

The plan