The Orange

This project is the refurbishment of a significant landmark heritage building – the Orange the Orange Coronation Hall on Auckland’s Newton Road – and a new mixed-use development on the same site, resulted from a design competition. The brick and plaster building, designed in 1922 by Arthur Sinclair-O’Connor, was originally home to the Protestant ‘Loyal Order of Orangemen’. It was transformed into a popular dance hall in the 1940s, and later a performing arts school and a church. The design intent was to cradle the Orange within the new development. The old hall retains its brick exterior and a sophisticated white interior, while the new mixed-use building picks up on the Orange theme with its sunscreens and projecting mullions to create a bold statement on the street. The curved curtain wall creates a dynamic contrast to the old hall. The new building gently and respectfully wraps around the existing hall – creating a new sunny sheltered public plaza above street level. This pedestrian space is activated through visual transparency between the old and new. Full height windows are inserted into the old Hall allowing users of this new public space to engage with activity and space. The plaza is punctuated with notional memorabilia, etched foot prints and dance floor chairs as street furniture reflecting a former life. This mixed-use development includes the old lodge room, dance hall with its sprung floor and supper room within the old hall. 70 apartments including lofts, 2 bedrooms, 1 bedroom and studio units. Commercial space and retail shops that occupy and activate the street level. This development seeks to further an Architecture that is both memorable and appropriate in this dynamic area.