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: