BNZ Place

Once a CBD fuel station now a mega-sustainable landmark.

6 Star Green Star rated BNZ Place on Wellington’s waterfront is a triumph.

Banner image by Jasmax

Essentials

Name: BNZ Place, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington

What: 15 storey premium office building; 21,000m²; includes 6 metre high entry lobby, café, and rooftop courtyard

Anchor tenant: BNZ; whole building; subleases three floors

Daily occupancy: Estimated 1800 people

Address: 1 Whitmore Street, Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington

Project Snapshot

Owner: One Whitmore Street LP; Newcrest headed the project and manages the building

Architect: Jasmax

Project GSAP: Patrick Arnold, 335 Ltd

Main contractor: Newcrest Construction Limited

Project status: Four year design, consent and building process; completed late 2023

Project certification: 6 Green Star Office Built v3 rating (May 2025)

Newcrest Director, Lincoln Fraser (left) receives the 6 Star Green Star certificate from NZGBC Chief Executive Andrew Eagles

After the Seddon and Kaikōura earthquakes damaged BNZ’s main offices on Waterloo Quay, staff were spread across multiple temporary locations. Regrouping in a new capital city HQ was on its radar.

Fortunately, the stars aligned with leading developers Newcrest embarking on a major development of its premium harbouside property.

“We purchased the site in 2017 having long admired its excellent development potential. When BNZ committed to lease the whole building in late 2019 it catalysed the project,” says Newcrest director, Lincoln Fraser.

The bank’s request for a minimum 5 Star Green Star rating was in sync with its landlord’s environmental trajectory.

“Newcrest is one of the longest serving developer members of the New Zealand Green Building Council [NZGBC] and we’ve sought Green Star certifications for all our large commercial projects since the NZI Centre in Auckland in 2009. We see Green Star as an important standard to evidence the quality of the design and construction. We focus on creating a small number of truly excellent, class leading buildings.”

Transferring smart green knowledge between developments has added to Newcrest’s acumen.

Lincoln says lessons from its Deloitte Centre project in the capital in 2018 allowed them to deliver and operate BNZ Place more efficiently, with the 6 star rating representative of quality throughout the Project.

“One key benefit of our rating is the As Built aspect verifies the delivered end outcome. So not just a design rating that may or may not have been taken through to final form and efficient operation.”

“We’re thrilled with the achievement. It’s an enduring reminder of the excellence of all inputs from some of Aotearoa’s leading designers and builders.”

Photo by Jason Mann

Newcrest assembled an experienced and proven project team including structural engineers, Dunning Thornton and architect Jasmax.   The building’s smooth-rounded nautically-inspired profile and protective street-level canopy designed to mitigate Wellington’s high wind weather.

"This sculpted base-isolated tower is braced by a perimeter diagrid structure and cloaked in a sleek curtain wall façade designed to amplify the fluidity of its form,” says Jasmax Principal, Nick Moyes.

Nick says the project’s key design drivers included meeting Wellington’s appetite for seismic resilient A-grade office space - a growing requirement since the Kaikōura earthquake - and delivering strength, flexibility and harbour views.

Design elements targeting Green Star include:

• Efficient diagrid structure; reduced embodied carbon by 27 percent compared with a typical frame on a similar-sized building

• Glazed façade; achieves exceptional thermal and acoustic performance

• Passive design principles; reduces demand for mechanical cooling while maintaining comfort-optimised working environments

• Very high-performance glazing system; reduces glare and heat gain; provides a high level of visible light transmission; reduces demand for additional lighting

• High-performance HVAC system; no fossil fuels used in the building

• Base isolation system; supports a dramatic increase in resilience and expected building life

“In both form and performance BNZ Place delivers one of Wellington’s safest and more resilient office environments. Every single detail was carefully considered and bespoke in execution - resulting in a highly crafted, premium commercial development exemplifying the pursuit of excellence in commercial building design and delivery.”

That pursuit of excellence began with the decommission of an existing service station on site, removal of old petrol and diesel tanks and remediation of the property.

Forming a new sub-basement level included drilling 28 piles - the deepest reaching around 50 metres - to support the foundation beams and slab for the base isolators on which the building sits. 

335 Ltd director and GSAP, Patrick Arnold, says the diagrid frame and foundation level base isolators achieves “a very high level of seismic performance and a low damage design – delivering not only life safety but operational resilience for the tenant – and peace of mind.” Imperatives given BNZ’s previous experience in the city.

Newcrest Construction head of construction, Gus Smith, says the tight building site required highly detailed sequencing of works and careful planning of material deliveries, as well as a ‘forward-thinking’ approach to construction. 

“It demonstrates we can build smarter, more sustainably and collaboratively. It reflects our evolving approach to construction and our commitment to better building outcomes for our clients and the environment.”

Patrick Arnold says BNZ Place, along with several other Green Star projects under construction in Wellington at the time, encouraged a local waste contractor to create a recycled pathway for plaster board – previously trucked to Auckland for recycling.

“This is a great example of environmental rating tools and sustainable buildings influencing the industry for the better.”

BNZ general manager of property, Kelly Galbraith, says the bank partnered with Newcrest “to bring to life a design-build unique to BNZ equipped with sustainable elements – creating an inspiring workplace which is holistic in design and places staff wellbeing first and foremost.” 

“We’re also seeing additional benefits because of the building’s impact - increased productivity and collaboration, a stronger connection to our workplace and values, reduced absenteeism and being the employer of choice to attract and retain talent.”

Green features include:

• Re-use of land

• Environmentally preferable materials

• Outside air provided at 100 percent improvement on NZGBC requirement

• Low energy building services

• Predicted GHG emissions significantly lower than a standard building (6.47kgCO2-e/m²/annum)

• Peak electricity demand reduction of 42.8 percent

• Reduced light pollution to night sky

• Proximity to public transport

• End of trip facilities for cyclists and visitor cyclist storage spaces