Main contractor for new Invercargill museum on board

The rebuild of Invercargill’s museum is full steam ahead, with the local branch of Naylor Love officially joining the project as its main contractor.

Invercargill City Council’s Project 1225 involves the creation of three new cultural facilities for the city: the recently-completed Te Pātaka Taoka regional museum collection storage facility, a specialist tuatara enclosure within the Queens Park animal reserve, and the demolition and rebuild of the city’s museum.

Council Project Director Lee Butcher said Naylor Love had secured the Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) tender for the new museum – Te Unua Museum of Southland.

“The purpose of an ECI is to partner our architectural team with one that brings practical building expertise to the table. It’s important to have people from the building industry on board during the design process, to assist the design team with construction methodology and the ‘buildability’ of a project,” he said.

“Naylor Love will look at things such as if there are simpler or more economical ways to construct the museum without taking away from how it looks, or whether the design poses any practical challenges from a construction standpoint.”

The architectural team for Te Unua Museum of Southland is comprised of fjcstudio, Evatt Martin, and designTRIBE. The design team provided initial concept designs for the new museum in August.

“Essentially, Naylor Love will look at things from a construction point-of-view to ensure that bringing the design team’s vision to life is achievable,” Butcher said.

Council received three local bids for the tender.

Naylor Love Project Manager Nick Jones said the firm was looking forward to being involved in bringing a brand-new museum to Invercargill.

“We are really keen to begin that collaboration with the wider Project 1225 team, from the Invercargill City Council through to its architectural partners, to bring a wonderful project to fruition in the city,” he said.

“It is not often a city gets to build a brand-new museum from the ground up, so to be part of a legacy project like this is incredibly exciting.”

During the ECI phase of the contract, Naylor Love would have a select team of engineers and construction professionals working on the project, Jones said.

Butcher said the demolition of the Southland Museum and Art Gallery is scheduled to begin in mid-2024, while the base build of Te Unua Museum of Southland is set to be completed by December 2025.

Following the completion of the base build, work on constructing the design experience would begin. The new museum would then be officially opened to the public in late 2026, he said.