Wooden Office Tower

Armed with a property derived fortune Wellingtonian Robert Jones proposed to build on this site a wooden office block, 52 metres high, he says he has designed himself.

The virtues of construction using laminated lumber are that it is earthquake resistant and fireproof. It has been touted as a building technique ideally suited to New Zealand because of its timber supply and seismicity.
However subsequently the plans have been modified with retention of the existing concrete framework and the use of some timber in the rebuild.

The wooden Government Building, now occupied by the Victoria University Law School, is cited as being a long-lived survivor in an earthquake zone.