Kings Building

It's finally spring and I'm out in the afternooon sun. A few days later, I see this headline in the local news. It looks like I'm back to indoor sketching.

49th Sketchcrawl Day

Here is another sketch from Trevor for the 49th Sketchcrawl Day:

King Street from the Kings Building

Kings Building

Often the views from high places in a city, can show untidy rooftops, and ours was no exception.  But here an there were handsome pocket cameos.  When Brian and I peered over the rooftop barrier at our main street, Devon St, we were presented with a wonderfully colourful left and right view up and down the street.

We stood there, clutching our sketchbooks firmly on the edge and enjoyed drawing in the warm spring day.

49th Worldwide Sketchcrawl Day

Check out our On Location page to see us in action on Sketchcrawl Day.

Here are Trevor's sketches:

King's building.

View from the King's Building.

King's Building from Devon Street East.

Here is my other sketch now completed:

49th Worldwide Sketchcrawl - King's Building.

The King's Building took two years to construct and was opened in November 1927. It was built for Newton King Limited, an important local businessman and benefactor. A building permit was issued on the 24th of March 1926 for the King's Building, Jones and Sandford were the builders at an estimated cost of £53,000. The architect firm involved was Gummer and Ford. They are described in the NPDC Heritage Study report as the pre-eminent architectural practice in New Zealand during the inter-war years.

In 1986 Westwell Properties Ltd bought the building for $1,200,000 and the building was upgraded.

In 1994 a penthouse apartment was added to the roof of the building and the whole building was renovated, modified and upgraded to give quality retail, office and residential use.

In 2010 the whole building was repainted in sympathetic colours which highlighted the decorated panels and friezes.

We had the opportunity today to sketch in the penthouse apartment as it is currently empty. This gave us different views of the central business district and the foreshore. We sketched both inside and out, and were able to come and go as we pleased.

I managed 1 1/2 sketches on the day. Here is my second sketch:

King's building view of the New Plymouth foreshore walkway and Puke Ariki landing. Pen and colour pencil.

And some photos:

Kings Building, New Plymouth NZ

The Kings Building is a landmark in the New Plymouth CBD. It houses  retail shops, upstairs commercial offices and a Penthouse which has a wonderful view of the New Plymouth waterfront. An interesting feature is that it is built over a stream . The downstairs premises were subject to occasional flooding before a flood protection scheme was constructed .  The eastern end of  the Kings Building includes the Espresso Cafe which now looks over the  Huatoki Plaza and uncovered part of the  Huatoki stream.  MLB  .