Warren, who practiced law with a focus on property and is now a property consultant/investor, and Rich, chatted for years about collaborating on a project, bouncing ideas around over a couple of beers. “Architects are good fun; I’ve never met a bad one,” says Warren. So, who else would he choose but RTA Studio to design one of his first developments: The Retro block of flats in Brown Street, Ponsonby? Back in those days, Rich and his former practice partner, architect Tim Melville, worked from a grungy little room on a K Road corner.
Testament to that initial design, apartments in the modernist-style building with its gullwing roofline are still tightly held. Another apartment (with a suspended lap pool) followed…then a winery at Mahurangi…then at least a dozen other projects. When Warren moved to Hawke’s Bay, and needed a visionary sidekick for an urban intervention that would change the face of Havelock North village, there was only one team he thought of.
Joll Road, a highly activated mixed-use development, is a village within a village that reflects the vernacular of the surrounding rural landscape. With Stage One and Two already constructed and occupied and three more stages to go, Warren says it has been a fantastic success for locals. “Introducing RTA to the development owners, and assisting where required, has helped Joll Road lift the bar in design and introduced a level of office, retail and hospitality premises that previously wasn’t available here,” he explains. “It has provided many young people with jobs in the food-and-beverage industry – and we no longer have to travel to Auckland to have a taste of the urban lifestyle.”
As a founding client, Warren considers the creative exploration he gets to practice when working with the studio team a real bonus. “Rich has fostered a young, keen workforce and understands that the only way to learn is through experience so is heavily involved at the start but then steps back and lets them have a go.”
Approaching the Joll Road laneways project from this perspective has earned accolades in terms of the annual NZIA awards programme but also allowed the cross-flow of learning between generations. There is strength in differences.
Forgiving Rich his ongoing fixation with the colour orange (still prevalent, as seen in the current Auckland office), he sees in him a likeminded soul. They share a passion for design, an entrepreneurial spirit and a secret fanboy addiction to post-punk bands. “I’ve seen Rich go from an architect wannabee wearing the cliché black skivvy, to the real deal,” says Warren. There’s still a long way to wander yet.