New 'leaning tower of Rongotai' is eye-catching marvel

Wellington's new 32-metre air traffic control tower is nearly finished. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Wellington's new air traffic control tower, dubbed ''the leaning tower of Rongotai'' is nearing completion.

The $18m building is in a shopping area near the city's airport and has been designed with a 12.5 degree angle to give the impression it is leaning into the wind.

Air traffic controller Airways said the 32m tall building is due to be finished in March.

Systems installation and testing, and staff training will begin once the building has been finished.

The Wellington tower controllers will be trained in a simulator to prepare them to move into their new working environment and then there will be a handover period where the existing and new towers will be operating at the same time.

Airways expects the new tower to be fully operational from July.

The ''cab'' is the tower's operational centre on the top deck and will provide controllers managing flights in and out of Wellington Airport with 360-degree views of the airfield.

During the construction phase it was put to a big earthquake test in November 2016.

Seismic safety features meant its partially finished frame was undamaged by earthquakes. Thirteen base isolators were installed within the building's foundations to provide a higher level of resilience, and they functioned as expected during the quakes.