St John’s Church strengthening project update
St John’s has been part of Wellington since 1853. The current church building was built in 1885 and is an important symbol of God’s grace and love for the city.
It has a New Zealand Heritage Category 1 rating, meaning that it is recognised to have special or outstanding historical or cultural significance or value. This listing befits St John’s importance as a large Church for national gatherings, the funerals of Prime Ministers Peter Fraser and Sir John Marshall and large concerts. Built from kauri and other native timbers, to a design by renowned architect Thomas Turnbull, it would be impossible to replicate today.
But – until recently, the St John’s church building could not withstand a major earthquake. It could have moved off its foundations. or the steeple could have collapsed.
We have now completed the strengthening project and celebrated our reopening on 9 August 2020. We’ve raised $3.2 million towards the cost of doing this. We have also carried out maintenance that was only discovered when the building was opened up (in some cases for the first time since it was built).
What was done
Engineers from Dunning Thornton prepared a design to strengthen the building to 70% NBS (New Building Standard). The work was done by another well-known and experienced Wellington firm, L.T. McGuiness, (who also strengthened at St Mary of the Angels).
The strengthening work consisted of new reinforced concrete foundation piles, cross-tied under the building, with side-wall buttresses made more robust by the improvement of connections, including new connections to the foundation. New bracing elements at the ends of the church and ply bracing to the main towers were installed. In areas which required ply lining – the two towers and the vestry and choir rooms at the southern end of the building – careful removal, numbering, storage and replacement of the existing kauri match-lining interior cladding minimised the disruption to the building aesthetics and original design. We also replaced borer-affected timber and stripped away many decades of old paint.
The church is now fully available for Sunday worship once again, as well as for public uses such as concerts. We are delighted to be able to share it with the public who have supported our project..
We still need your help
Strengthening St John’s was budgeted at $4.2 million. Remedial work of replacing structural timber and essential maintenance have now taken the cost to $6.5 million.
We have covered 77% of the targeted amount so far, so our fundraising will continue until the end of 2020. We still need and would greatly appreciate your help to cover the rest.
View St John’s Strengthening Project Brochure
Our progress so far
We are hugely grateful to all those who have pledged their ongoing support. As of August 2020, we have raised just over 77% ($3.24 million) of the original target of $4.2 million that we need.
Thanks go particularly to the Wellington City Council for their support of this project. They have granted St John’s a massive $168,500 from their Built Heritage Incentive Fund (BHIF), which shows just how important they consider St John’s is to Wellington. Find out more about this grant.
We also thank the Government’s Community Matters programme and many other people both within and beyond St John’s for their support.
What you can do
This substantial earthquake strengthening work still needs both big and small gifts and a lot of time and energy. It is possible for people to contribute in all these ways, in addition to regular giving:
Pledging regular gifts of capital over three years
Letting someone else know about this opportunity to help or telling us about someone else who may be interested in supporting the strengthening project
All gifts over $5 are currently eligible for a Government rebate of 33% of the amount gifted to a maximum of each individual giver’s income tax paid in that year.
Two ways to donate
Directly by bank transfer and online via Givealittle fund - click here for details