Cultural Significance

This historic place was registered under the Historic Places Act 1993. The following text from the original registration report considered by the NZHPT Board at the time of registration. Social: Changed airport control procedures have led to a modified function of the Control Tower, but the control room is still in use and serves a useful purpose in the operation of the airport. The Tower has a revered status to generations of traffic controllers, pilots, flight crews and to staff who have worked at the airport.

Historic Significance

Historical Significance or Value This historic place was registered under the Historic Places Act 1993. The following text from the original registration report considered by the NZHPT Board at the time of registration. Historical Significance: The Control Tower has been well-known to many hundreds of pilots, flight crews and airport staff, and to generations of residents and visitors to the area for almost 60 years. As well as performing its prime function of overseeing flight operations, it has become identified with both the airport and the town around it to a remarkable degree. For over a decade, this was the main airport for Wellington while major reconstruction was occurring for larger aircraft at Rongotai airport. Traffic movements for both passenger and freight aircraft as well as light aircraft in this period in particular were very high. The Control Tower was also constructed in a period when personal contact with flight crew is quite different from today's technological world.

Physical Significance

This historic place was registered under the Historic Places Act 1993. The following text from the original registration report considered by the NZHPT Board at the time of registration. Aesthetic, Architectural and Technical: The Control Tower was constructed in a period when new architectural forms were being devised, to provide for expanding functions in the transport field. Its clean lines show the newly developing aesthetic, placing great emphasis on the use and function of the building. The cab construction provides a distinctive architectural character. Its prominent situation on a busy traffic route in Paraparaumu gives the building a considerable 'landmark' significance in a townscape otherwise devoid of such features.

Detail Of Assessed Criteria

This historic place was registered under the Historic Places Act 1993. The following text from the original registration report considered by the NZHPT Board at the time of registration. (a) The extent to which the place reflects important or representative aspects of New Zealand: Worldwide, aviation is less than 100 years old, but aviation in all its aspects, the development of passenger flying and freight movement, light aircraft use, and the construction of multipurpose buildings at airports, have played a significant part in the growth of New Zealand. Many early aviation structures are no longer in existence in this country, so it is important that remaining representative types of buildings such as Control Towers are recognised and retained. The Tower at Paraparaumu was constructed in a period of significant growth in air movement in New Zealand, military aircraft and the commencement of the National Airways Corporation for civil air traffic. Despite its distance from the capital city, Paraparaumu was required to be Wellington's main airport effectively for 12 years from 1947. (b) The association of the place with events, persons, or ideas of importance in New Zealand history: In the years between 1947 and 1959 when Rongotai was under reconstruction, and later until 1971, as all official alternate to Wellington, Paraparaumu handled the tourist, business and diplomatic air traffic of the capital city. When the Queen and Prince Philip made their first visit to New Zealand in 1953 they landed at Paraparaumu. On July 18 1939, the then Minister of Works, Hon. Bob Semple, used the levelling of Paraparaumu airfield as an example of the use of modern machinery with bulldozers and scrapers. In March 1941, the RNZAF made Paraparaumu the reporting point for aircraft crossing the Cook Strait, instead of Rongotai, using the airfield's weather forecasts and communications facilities. Previously, civil aircraft circled the railway stationmaster's office at Paekakariki and the lighthouse at the top of the South Island. By October 1945, Paraparaumu airfield had become part of the main trunk air passenger service for RNZAF Dakotas from Auckland to Christchurch because Rongotai was too small. The airfield was rapidly upgraded with sealed runways and a terminal using old army huts. There has been two significant aircraft crashes associated with Paraparaumu. In March 1949, an NAC Lockheed Lodestar, ZK-AKZ, on approach to Paraparaumu from Whenuapai, crashed inland from Waikanae, with the loss of all 15 people aboard. In May 1954, DC3 ZK-AQT crashed on approach to the Paraparaumu airfield into sand hills to the south of the airport. Fuel tanks had not been switched across. Three children died. The remaining adult passengers and the flight crew survived. During the period that the airport was used by NAC, 1.5 million passengers passed through Paraparaumu. They had to travel for just on an hour by bus to reach the capital city. Paraparaumu was the last flight destination for the late Norman Kirk, Prime Minister of New Zealand from 1972 -74. He arrived by RNZAF Hercules and was driven off the aircraft in a car headed for Wellington. He died a few days later on August 8th 1974. (c) The potential of the place to provide knowledge of New Zealand history: Paraparaumu airport after World War II required an urgent upgrade of all its facilities to cope with main trunk air 'traffic. This meant that there had to be a new control tower facility to clear a significant increase in aircraft movements. The construction of this particular control tower, was the first upgrade in New Zealand. In effect it was a prototype plan required by the civil aviation authority for air traffic control facilities in this country after 1947. From this airports other than the main centres around the country had to cope with a significant increase use of larger aircraft, the DC3 and the Lockheed Lodestar. The Paraparaumu Tower, with its Ministry of Works cab design, on an elevated site, can be credited with being the first of many that were built and are now well established at airfields throughout New Zealand. (e) The community association with, or public esteem for, the place: The Control Tower has been a prominent feature in Paraparaumu for generations. Many families in the local area and beyond have a long recall of the history of the Control Tower being tied up with the development of the airfield from its construction as a defence measure prior to World War II and its subsequent use by military and civil aircraft and recreational aviation. It served as the principal airport for Wellington and handled large volumes of passenger and commercial traffic. The Control Tower has been well maintained and retains substantially its original form and character. Several generations of pilots, flight crews and staff who worked at the airport since its beginnings have high respect for the Tower building. (f) The potential of the place for public education: Public interest in aviation in New Zealand has grown with a large number of recent books published on the development of aircraft from inception in New Zealand, the history of our airline companies and references to historic aviation buildings around the country. By special arrangement, visitors are conducted around the Museum of Aviation in Paraparaumu, and are frequently conducted over the Control Tower. Also by arrangement, such tours are now fairly common place at other airfields in New Zealand especially at provincial centres. The history of these control towers is related and visitors get the opportunity to observe the procedures that staff are required to follow. (g) The technical accomplishment or value, or design of the place: The design of control towers for airports immediately value, or design of the place following World War II was ground breaking territory for design teams at the Ministry of Works. With no prototypes, it was a battle of the authorities to agree what was best for control tower design to meet the rapid growth in air transport. The design chosen was practical and the selection of the site on high ground was necessary for the tasks that had to be performed. The location of the Paraparaumu Control Tower is a significant landmark for passing air traffic and it is a site that can be seen over a wide area of Paraparaumu. (h) The symbolic or commemorative value of the place: From its beginnings some 56 years ago, the Control Tower has been a significant structure in Paraparaumu, largely because of its siting on high ground and with no other comparable buildings of this kind in the immediate vicinity. The Control Tower has reached an icon status with pilots, flight crews, and former staff at the airport and with the local community, especially given the long period that this airfield operated as Wellington's main airport through the 1950s. It has been well maintained and special efforts are made by community representatives to convey the history of the Control Tower in the context of air movements both past and present. (k) The extent to which the place forms part of a wider historical and cultural complex or historical and cultural landscape: Paraparaumu is a very flat landscape with few high-rise buildings of any description, save some apartment buildings, and offices near the coast, but above all the Airport Control Tower dominates. The Tower is a very visual landmark, not only to aircraft approaching the local airfield and to Wellington airport, but it can be seen from a considerable distance away by people passing through Paraparaumu, and from houses in the area. The coastal fringe is characterized by rolling sand dunes which form a border to the airport from the south west, with houses built right up to the boundary of the airport on the western side. Kapiti Road the main traffic route through to the coastal area runs adjacent to the Control Tower. The Tower rises from the edge of the highway from a plateau to dominate a very large acreage of airport tarmacs, runways and aircraft buildings on both the east and western sides of the airport. The elevated site and glass cab providing 360 degree visual control provides the dominance that this structure has on this landscape.