Hamilton City Council decided to demolish the Founders Theatre in June.
Hamilton City Council decided to demolish the Founders Theatre in June.
Friends of Hamilton’s Founders Theatre have made a last-minute bid to save the historic building as the demolition is set to get under way on Friday.
Auckland-based company Yakka Demolition, who also led the demolition of the Ōtāhuhu power station, will start to prepare the site for demolition this week, with initial work including asbestos removal to run from November until mid-March.
Meanwhile, Theatre of the Impossible Charitable Trust (Toti) trustee Margaret Evans said the group made a final unsuccessful appeal to Hamilton mayor Paula Southgate and council chief executive Lance Vervoort via email last week.
“We tried, and we’ll see, miracles might happen. But whatever happens, the council will be held accountable for this,” Evans said.
When asked if Toti was organising a public protest, Evans said the group had nothing planned, however, “suggestions had been made”.
“You won’t see me lying in front of a bulldozer, but I am supportive of anyone who wants to do this,” she said.
Toti trustee Margaret Evans.
Toti proposed in June that the council gift the theatre to the trust which would repurpose the building as a community hub for heritage and culture at no cost to the council.
When asked if Hamilton City Council was expecting any disruption from passionate community groups in response to the work, the council’s Parks and Recreation unit director Maria Barrie said the council had explored all possibilities for keeping it.
“We hope that the community will join us in looking toward the future while honouring the past. The redevelopment of the park will include interpretive signage that speaks to the history of the space, both as Founders Theatre and as a significant area for mana whenua before that.”
Barrie said the demolition work was expected to take around seven months.
The first part of the work required included salvaging of community items, stripping the interior and asbestos removal which is set to continue until March.
“Structural demolition of the building will be done from mid-March, using long-reach excavators with attachments. From mid-April to mid-June, the foundation demolition and final site works will be completed,” Barrie said.
Several items from the theatre are going to be salvaged for community groups, including the dressing room doors, the green room door, and the stage curtains.
“We’re aiming to recycle 70-80 per cent of materials from the demolition. This includes things like wood, concrete, glass and brick. Not only does this reduce the amount of waste going to landfill, but parts of the building can live on in our city too,“ Barrie said.
She added the council was not planning to close any roads around the work site, however, “there will be some increases in traffic while the work is under way, so we’re encouraging people to plan their travel accordingly”.
The site of the Founders Theatre would become a multi-purpose park. Barrie said the council was working on the detailed design concept for the park while the demolition took place.
“We’ll share this with the community as soon as it is done. We’ll have a clear idea of the timeframe for the redevelopment once the detailed design is completed.”
Founders Theatre opened in 1962 and has hosted acts like Louis Armstrong, the Beach Boys, and Lou Reed.
In 2016, the theatre was closed due to significant safety concerns and has since been identified as earthquake-prone.
Since its closure, it has been a recurring hot topic and after three community consultations, the council decided in 2020 to demolish the building and turn it into a multi-purpose park - a proposal 84 per cent of people that responded supported, the council said.
Danielle Zollickhofer is a multimedia journalist based in Hamilton. She joined NZME in 2021 and is writing for the Waikato Herald.
