It’s time for the Griffiths Holdings building on the corner of Wellesley Street West and Mayoral Drive to come down. It has stood on this corner for around 80 years and has come to the end of its life. Assessments carried out late last year confirmed that it’s structurally unsafe and demolition is required.
While its not a heritage building, and it has been heavily modified over time, there are parts of the building worth safely storing for future use, including the coat-of-arms parapet and some historic clay blocks manufactured at the historic Holland's brickworks at Limeburners Bay in Hobsonville.
The tall brick wall on the Bledisloe House side of the building will be dismantled and as many bricks as possible slavaged, along with the pillar on the Wellesley Street side. These are all that is left of the Kaiapoi Woollen Company’s Auckland branch building that once stood on the neighbouring site (where the public toilet is now).
Contractors will be taking extra care when working around the scheduled tulip tree on Mayoral Drive too.
Once the building is gone, council will be looking at alternative uses for the site, before it becomes part of the wider Aotea Station area for the City Rail Link.
Demolition work will begin on Friday 19 February (preparation works) and will be carried out during late February and March 2016 and will involve heavy machinery and truck movements.
