Bates Smart ™

Grand Plimmer
Wellington, New Zealand

The Grand Plimmer sits on the edge of an historic walkway, The Plimmer Steps, which negotiates the escarpment between the harbour and the hills of Wellington.

The Grand Plimmer consists of an office tower and a hotel tower over a retail and car parking podium. The two towers align with the separate geometries of the lower (harbour) lands and the upper (mountain) land. The buildings have a structural 'Exoskeleton' for earthquake resistance and an inner non-structural frame.

Bates Smart has used colour to reveal both the structural logic and contextual location of the towers within Wellington. Warm Black has been used on the structural frame while the inner frame consists of a pixilation of colours derived from native New Zealand flora and fauna.

The colour palette, as well as the quantity and intensity of colour varies depending on the angle the buildings are viewed, as well as the time of day and the available sunlight creating a constantly shifting perception of the building throughout the day and around the city.