Historic Significance

Historical Significance or Value This historic place was registered under the Historic Places Act 1980. This report includes the text from the original Building Classification Committee report considered by the NZHPT Board at the time of registration. The Australian Mutual Provident Society was established in 1849, and had been a prominent commercial organisation in Napier long before the earthquake. After the 1931 earthquake the company played a very important part in financing the reconstruction of Napier. The Society was looked upon as a benevolent and munificent commercial organisation of considerable significance for the community. The building itself is part of a collection of structures in Napier which all comply with the New Zealand Standards Association codes for earthquake resistant structures which were enforced after 1931.

Physical Significance

This historic place was registered under the Historic Places Act 1980. This report includes the text from the original Building Classification Committee report considered by the NZHPT Board at the time of registration. ARCHITECTURAL SIGNIFICANCE: Louis Hay was New Zealand's leading exponent of Chicago School architecture in the thirties. He was influenced by both Louis Sullivan and his famous pupil Frank Lloyd Wright. In the AMP building, Hay has concentrated his ornament on corners, at openings and at the junctions of features, where emphasis is appropriate. However, the proportions of the building derive from the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, particularly his Unity Temple, Oak Park, Chicago (1905-6) and show Hay's indebtedness to American precursors. Hay deploys ornament to great effect but always with restraint. Rather than derive the capitals to the pilasters from classical precedent, Hay has topped his engaged pilasters with rich foliate motifs, which although ornate, remain sculpted in low relief and therefore closely related to the structure. The incorporation of the AMP's classical statuary group on the pediment emphasises the classical derivation of the whole design and adds a dignity and monumentality to the architecture which is appropriate to the image of stability and dependability which the insurance company wished to have expressed. TOWNSCAPE/LANDMARK SIGNIFICANCE: The AMP building occupies a prominent site at the foot of Shakespeare Hill on the boundary of the central business district. Its style of architecture links it to Louis Hay's nearby Hildebrandt and Munster Chambers buildings in Tennyson Street as well as to the Hawkes Bay Art Gallery and Museum in Herschell Street which adjoins Browning Street.