Naylor Love celebrates its centenary with new green school construction

Naylor Love, currently the fourth-largest construction company in New Zealand, is celebrating a major milestone this year – its centenary.

It is 100 years since Hugh Naylor and James Love each set up a building company in Dunedin in 1910. Naylor Love, a private construction company, was formed in 1969 with the merger of the two companies, WH Naylor and The Love Construction Company, both of which had played a major role in the development of New Zealand for 60 years.

During its 100-year history, the firm has built a wide range of schools to standard Department (now Ministry) of Education designs. Three schools newly completed by Naylor Love, however, have incorporated the wishes of staff and the local community, both for teaching spaces and the outside environment, in their unique designs.

Annie Day, project manager on two of the green schools, and Naylor Love’s first Green Star professional, was invited to work as one of the technical group members developing the New Zealand Green Star education building rating tool. Annie’s role in the group, which included engineers, architects and Ministry of Education representatives, was to consider constructability.

School tool for Green Star rating

The environmentally friendly Snells Beach School, north of Auckland, designed for Naylor Love by architecture firm Brewer Davidson, was one of the first to be designed under the Green Star School Tool. Built for the future, it features many green features such as water retention tanks to collect roof water, and the use of low VOC (volatile organic compounds) and recycled materials. Paths and courtyards with overhead canopies link all the buildings, and soft landscaping includes vegetable gardens.

Senior project managers attended community consultation and information evenings for the public. The community, represented by the establishment board of trustees (EBoT), was included in design meetings and heavily involved in all aspects of the design process. Guided tours of the site were held for the wider community, including prospective pupils.

Jill Corkin, principal of Snells Beach School, said this of the Naylor Love team: “I feel they are truly interested in the wider educational mission we are on and understand the vision we have. The unique nature of the environmental factors in the design and the Green Star rating that we are seeking to achieve demand links to the curriculum for the children and an understanding by the school staff and community. The project team have been genuinely interested in and supportive of the way in which we will link these aspects into the wider life of the school.”

The Naylor Love team supplied and installed interpretive panels explaining environmental sustainability around the school. Panels included descriptions of using macrocarpa trees from surrounding farmland for bench seats, the lifecycle of carpet, recycled concrete, and the school’s water use.

Teaching styles and whanau aspirations

Naylor Love was appointed as the construction solution provider responsible for the design, construction and delivery of the new Maori immersion school, Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Te Kotuku in Ranui, West Auckland, close to the magnificent forest of the Waitakere Ranges. Again, the design team worked closely with the EBoT to learn the kura’s teaching style and the aspirations of the whanau (school community).

The kura is one large open space from which all classes function. In this environment, older children can help younger ones, and teachers can share knowledge and resources. The kura can also be used as a community centre for the whole whanau. Naylor Love felt privileged to build the home (nest) for the great white bird, Te Kotuku (white heron).

Also a Green Building Council School Tool pilot, the greenfields environmentally sustainable design and build project had a high level of collaboration with local iwi and whanau. Green Star points are awarded according to different weightings, one of which is ‘land use and ecology’. Following Green Star guidelines, a rejuvenation plan was completed, with landscape design by Bridget Gilbert.

The kura buildings and playgrounds are at the head of a very steep gully which can’t be used for play or sporting activities. Over the next five years, this gully area will be enhanced with native species selected to encourage wildlife. The gully will then become a resource for learning about native plants and animals, including birds. As the gully restoration of Te Kura Kotuku takes hold over the next few years, the kura building will appear to be sitting out over a bushclad gully. What a wonderful teaching resource!

Another credit in the School Tool pilot is ‘topsoil and fill removal from site’. The design team planned and undertook to reuse all topsoil on the Te Kotuku site. The civil works to complete this in two stages were a major undertaking, for which the team received praise from the senior environmental monitoring officer for the Waitakere City Council.

Enhancing the natural surrounds

Remarkables Primary School in Queenstown, completed in July 2010, was designed by Babbage Consultants. The building design, one large twostoreyed structure that nestles into the landscape, was developed to enhance and capture the wonderful lakeside and mountain surrounds.

The EBoT wanted the school to be at least 4 Green Star rated, so all aspects of environmentally aware design – including solar energy, low-energy consumption technology, grassed roofs, recycling and soundproofing – were considered. Doubleglazing was a must, given the extremely cold winters. Natural daylight and ventilation were used, and because the school is not far from the flight path to the airport, a high degree of acoustic insulation was included to address the significant noise pollution from overhead aircraft.

Queenstown’s Baxter Design Group provided students with a variety of sheltered outdoor teaching, play and gathering areas. Outside spaces connect to classroom learning areas, including the roof, where a boardwalk and environmental planting meander along the roofline. Vegetable gardens, walking trails and interactive learning stations are being planned. Prospective students will help to shape and design play equipment areas in the school grounds.

A letter of appreciation from the Ministry of Education commended Naylor Love’s role in the construction of Remarkables School. “Your total team – from architect, engineers and construction crews – have displayed a sense of pride in the school. The way in which the buildings blend into the local environment is a credit to all those involved. At the same time, the school presents the opportunity for all those involved in education to further develop their understanding of modern learning environments.”

Supreme awards

Naylor Love’s mission is “to deliver measurably the best construction services for its clients”. The company has won many awards, including the New Zealand Registered Master Builders’ National Supreme ‘Commercial Project of the Year’ award on three occasions.

Alpine Aqualand in Queenstown, a world-class swimming pool and leisure complex, was the recipient in 2009. National commercial judge Simon Tonkin says the project was clearly not a conventional build and would have required a vast degree of planning. “Alpine Aqualand caught our eye for a number of reasons – not the least how well the building reflects its surrounding environment, and the high degree of design complexity which required an outstanding level of workmanship.”

A new gymnasium, the Marsh Sports Centre, for Columba College, a Dunedin girls’ secondary school, was the Supreme Award Winner in 2006. The judging panel chairman said: “The building enthuses and inspires those who use it.”

Winning the Supreme Award in 2003 was the University of Otago Information Services Building in Dunedin. The high-profile reconstruction and staged extension of the university library complex resulted in a top-line library with leadingedge information services and a centre for on-campus study.

Historic projects

By the time Naylor Love was formed by the merger of Love Construction and WH Naylor in 1969, both companies had an impressive list of achievements, constructing some very highprofile buildings, many of which endure today.

Love and Fletcher undertook several joint ventures – the buildings for the 1925/26 NZ and South Seas International Exhibition in Dunedin, the 1940/41 Centennial Exhibition in Wellington, and the Social Security and Health Department building in Wellington.

Opened in 1930, the Dunedin Town Hall is a good example of Love Brothers’ first-class craftsmanship. The building has been described as “one of the finest places of public assembly in New Zealand”. The Mater Hospital (renamed the Mercy Hospital), the Evening Star building (now the headquarters of Allied Press) and the original dental school (now a Zoology Department building) remain prominent WH Naylor landmarks in Dunedin.

The future

Naylor Love’s vision is to grow in size and capability to become widely recognised as one of the top four commercial construction companies in New Zealand. Trevor Kempton, managing director of Naylor Love, says: “To be measurably the best is a lofty ideal, but recent history has shown that it is an attainable goal.”

Don Stock, chairman of the Naylor Love board of directors, adds: “Our future will be based on the foundations of the past 100 years. The opportunities are there for Naylor Love to become one of New Zealand’s leading national construction companies, significantly larger than today, and leading the way through being measurably the best.”