BNZ Harbour Quays
building in New Zealand (demolished)
BNZ Harbour Quays was a large, award-winning office building on the waterfront in Wellington, New Zealand. It was built in 2009 and leased to the Bank of New Zealand, but suffered earthquake damage in the 2013 Seddon earthquake and the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake. The building was demolished in 2019.
Harbour Quays project
The BNZ Harbour Quays building on the waterfront in Wellington was built by the port company, CentrePort, as part of its Harbour Quays project. The Harbour Quays project was launched in July 2005 with the aim of developing CentrePort's land along Waterloo Quay, between Bunny St and the Sky Stadium, into a business park with office buildings, retail and recreational spaces. CentrePort said there was space for up to 12 multi-storey buildings to house 4000 workers. The first new building in the project was Statistics House, completed in 2005 and demolished in 2018 following earthquake damage.
On 31 October 2006, Bank of New Zealand (BNZ) chairman Kerry McDonald signed a property development agreement with CentrePort, who would construct a large office building at 60 Waterloo Quay and lease it to the BNZ. The bank needed Overseas Investment Office approval for the lease because BNZ was owned by the National Australia Bank, and the Overseas Investment Office had jurisdiction on leases to foreigners of foreshore land lasting longer than three years. McDonald said that the BNZ was attracted to the location, the large floor plate and the focus on environmental sustainability that the building would offer and said the premium working conditions would attract good staff. CentrePort chairman Nigel Gould stated that "the building will transform what is currently largely a utility area into an integral part of the city's business centre and will help link it with the sea" and that the building would be a symbol of modern cultured Wellington.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “BNZ Harbour Quays” as building in New Zealand (demolished). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as building in New Zealand (demolished). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q116148150. Authority coordinates are -41.279, 174.782. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2009, 2013, 2016 and 2019.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “BNZ Harbour Quays”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow BNZ Harbour Quays primary sources, BNZ Harbour Quays archive and Harbour research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “BNZ Harbour Quays”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “BNZ Harbour Quays” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.