Daily Telegraph Building Napier

A Category One Heritage site, this building was the third home for Napier’s newspaper, the Daily Telegraph. The first burned down on 18th December 1886, while the second was a victim of the 1931 earthquake. The replacement opened two years later.

It was designed by Ernest Arthur Williams, a local architect and former Borough Engineer. He also was responsible for the Criterion Hotel, the Central Hotel, Harston's Building, the Napier Harbour Board Offices and hospital buildings on Bluff Hill. Like most post-quake buildings it was built frugally in reinforced concrete with minimal external decoration. Inside is a double-height foyer of some grandeur.

The Daily Telegraph advocated rebuilding the city in a single style, declaring in the 4th February 1932 issue, “Napier has object lessons in other cities which have been laid waste by quake and fire and have been rebuilt to greater magnificence and grandeur than ever before. Napier people are determined that they will do the same.” On 16th February, under the headline Buildings of a Uniform Style**,** the Daily Telegraph reported:

The attractiveness of Santa Barbara, one of the youngest yet most beautiful cities of California, is behind the suggestion that all permanent buildings erected in Napier should conform to a uniform style of architecture. A handful of enthusiasts are working unobtrusively in the advancement of the proposal and have already succeeded in exciting and encouraging interest among architects in the city who share the advocacy of the Spanish style of architecture, and which is favoured for its multifarious advantages, notably economy, simplicity and safety.

Despite the efforts of the enthusiasts, neither the Spanish style nor any other was officially adopted by the city. Instead, buildings were designed in various styles, although economy, simplicity and safety were the guiding principles. Expensive and elaborate external decoration that might fall off in a future earthquake was avoided.

The Daily Telegraph’s owners obviously decided the Spanish style was not for them. Their building was designed in the style that was called ‘modern’ in the early 1930, but has been called ‘art deco’ since the early 1980s. It is linear and abstract, composed of a giant order of pilasters with capitals that stretch the Corinthian style to its limits.

The Daily Telegraph building has outlived its newspaper, which merged with the Hawkes Bay Herald-Tribune to become Hawkes Bay Today in 1999. The building is now occupied by a real estate company.
Listen to the Audioguide for an understanding of Art Deco Napier.