Projects - Archibald Baxter Memorial
Archibald Baxter Memorial
The Archibald Baxter Memorial is located within the Albany Street legal road reserve which intersects with George Street Dunedin.
The scope of the project was the removal of the existing staircase and annual plant bed, and the establishment of new structural walls, stairs, footpaths, landscaping, lighting and public artwork.
The new pedestrian path was constructed in exposed aggregate concrete with granite tile feature strips and timber decking.
The structural retaining walls were constructed from rough sawn board finished formwork to replicate the trenches in the 1st World War.
Recessed lights were installed at each set of steps and on the back wall behind the sculpture and three in-ground LED up-lights were installed at the base of the sculpture. A new light pole was installed at the George Street entrance to the site.
New seating in the form of sculptured timber bench seats were located on the street frontage to George Street and four other bench seats are located on the edges of the new formed pedestrian path.
Two feature steel and timber palisade fences were located in the middle of the proposed garden.
Signage was installed for the purpose of interpreting the sculpture with a background to the story of Archibald Baxter’s life as a New Zealand socialist, pacifist and conscientious objector.
This was a challenging project from a building perspective due to the slope of the reserve and the complex structural wall sequencing required to prevent the reserve which, was deemed instable land, from slipping onto George Street during construction.
There were further complications relating to existing service mains which ran through the site which needed to be carefully worked around and altered as required to maintain live service at all times.
An extremely skilled ABL concrete team ensured the successful completion of this project.
