Biography

Fletcher Construction Company was founded by Scottish-born James Fletcher (1886 - 1974), the son of a builder. Six months after his arrival in Dunedin in 1908, Fletcher formed a house-building partnership with Bert Morris. They soon moved into larger-scale construction work, building the St Kilda Town Hall (1911), and the main dormitory block and Ross Chapel at Knox College (1912). Fletcher's brothers, William, Andrew and John joined the business in 1911, which then became known as Fletcher Brothers. A branch was opened in Invercargill. While holidaying in Auckland in 1916, James tendered for the construction of the the Auckland City Markets. By 1919 the company, then known as Fletcher Construction, was firmly established in Auckland and Wellington. Notable landmarks constructed by the company during the Depression included the Auckland University College Arts Building (completed 1926); Landmark House (the former Auckland Electric Power Board Building, 1927); Auckland Civic Theatre (1929); the Chateau Tongariro (1929); and the Dominion Museum, Wellington (1934). Prior to the election of the first Labour Government, Fletcher (a Reform supporter) had advised the Labour Party on housing policy as hbe believed in large-scale planning and in the inter-dependence of government and business. However, he declined an approach by Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage in December 1935 to sell the company to the government, when the latter wanted to ensure the large-scale production of rental state housing. Although Fletchers ultimately went on to build many of New Zealand's state houses, for several years Residential Construction Ltd (the subsidiary established to undertake their construction) sustained heavy financial losses. Fletcher Construction became a public company, Fletcher Holdings, in 1940. Already Fletchers' interests were wide ranging: brickyards, engineering shops, joinery factories, marble quarries, structural steel plants and other enterprises had been added the original construction firm. Further expansion could only be undertaken with outside capital. During the Second World War James Fletcher, having retired as chairman of Fletcher Holdings, was seconded to the newly created position of Commissioner of State Construction which he held during 1942 and 1943. Directly responsible to Prime Minister Peter Fraser, Fletcher had almost complete control over the deployment of workers and resources. He also became the Commissioner of the Ministry of Works, set up in 1943, a position he held until December 1945. In 1981 Fletcher Holdings; Tasman Pulp and Paper; and Challenge Corporation amalgamated to form Fletcher Challenge Ltd, at that time New Zealand's largest company. Williamson Construction Company - main contract

Name

Fletcher Construction Company

Type

Builder

Biography

William Swanson Read Bloomfield (1885-1968), of Ngāti Kahungunu, has been considered likely to be the first person of Māori descent to have attended an architecture school and practised as a Western-style architect. Born into a prominent Gisborne family in Manutuke in 1885, his parents were Thomas E. Read Bloomfield and Mary Swanson - the latter being the daughter of Auckland timber merchant William Swanson and Ani Rangitunoa from Hawkes Bay. He was the second of five children to Thomas and Mary. Thomas had emigrated from England as a child in the 1860s and received an inheritance from his wealthy uncle George Edward Read, an English whaler and sea captain who settled in Poverty Bay. Thomas’ legacy funded the building of Riverslea, now known as Opou, a substantial homestead at Manutuke. In 1883 Thomas married Mary Swanson, the daughter of Ani Rangitunoa of Ngāti Kahungungu, and William Swanson, prominent Auckland timber merchant and 40-year politician progressing from the Provincial Council to the House of Representatives and finally the Legislative Council. William Bloomfield’s father died when he was five and his mother did not remarry, so his grandfather William Swanson is thought to have been a key male influence in his early life. William Bloomfield graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Architecture in 1913 and is reported to have been studying architecture in England when the First World War (1914-18) broke out. Joining the Royal Flying Corps soon after the conflict started, he was shot down over enemy lines in 1917 and was held captive for the remainder of the war. After repatriation from Germany, Bloomfield returned to New Zealand and married Audrey Gribbin in 1920. From the mid-1920s, he practised in Auckland as part of the firm Bloomfield and Hunt, and then Bloomfield, Owen and Morgan. He was responsible for several notable buildings in the city during this period, including Yorkshire House (1926-8); the Queen’s Arcade in Queen Street (1928-9) and the Masonic Temple in St Benedict’s Street (1929-30). Work undertaken in 1930 included the Hotel Titirangi - or Lopdell House - in Titirangi; the Station Hotel in Beach Road; and the Auckland Aero Club clubhouse. Also in 1930, Bloomfield’s design for St Augustine’s Church in Devonport was erected as a memorial to local men who had died in the First World War. Those commemorated included his brother-in-law, Gunner R. L. Gribbin. During the Second World War (1939-45), Bloomfield served in the Royal New Zealand Air Force as squadron leader and North Island divisional commander. His later work as an architect encompassed numerous domestic designs, many of which featured in Home and Building. He retired from practice in 1959. Source: NZ Heritage List Report for Hotel Titirangi (Former), Te Uru Gallery and the Treasure House (Former), 6 November 2020, Martin Jones.

Name

Bloomfield, W S R

Type

Architect