The Head Office Building of the Bank of New Zealand occupies the site of the first major reclamation of the Harbour, that of 7 acres carried out by the Wellington Provincial Government. It is also the site of Plimmer's Ark, the barque 'Inconstant' which was salvaged by John Plimmer in 1849 and converted to a warehouse. (Timbers from the 'Inconstant' were uncovered in 1899 and survive today in the form of the director's chair in the Bank's Board Room.)

The Bank of New Zealand was founded in Auckland in 1861; it opened a Wellington branch in 1862 and its first permanent building in 1863. This stood on the site of the present building. The Head Office of the Bank was transferred to Wellington in 1894 and in 1899 plans were prepared by Thomas Turnbull and Son for a new Head Office Building. A contract was let to T. Carmichael on 4 April 1899 and the building opened on 1 July 1901.

The facades of the building are divided horizontally into three parts. The ground floor is heavily rusticated. The first and second floors are joined with a giant order of Corinthian columns at the corners. Between them, the first floor has pediment and columned windows, the second floor round-headed windows with decorated corbels. A bracketed frieze and balustrade have been removed as an earthquake precaution. The interior has a fine banking chamber with a tesselated floor, highly finished Kauri furniture and elaborate plaster capitals and ceiling decoration, all of a standard of craftsmanship now rarely seen.

It is an imposing structure in the Edwardian Baroque style, fashionable in England at this time for important commercial buildings. It occupies a prominent wedge shaped site at a nodal point in the City, its two neighbouring buildings being compatible in scale and character. It befits the self assurance expected of the Head Office of New Zealand's largest banking house at a time of economic prosperity in the country.