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White Hart Hotel, New Plymouth

As part of the re-development of the iconic 1886 White Hart Hotel and its Heritage Category 1 street facade, a full paint scheme was developed.

The White Hart Hotel site in New Plymouth was once home to Bleak House and used as a hospital before being bought in 1867 and converted to a hotel. The new White Hart Hotel was then built on the site in 1886 using an estimated 30,000 metres of timber. As part of the re-development of the iconic 1886 White Hart Hotel and its Heritage Category 1 street facade, a full paint scheme was developed.

The full timber body of the old hotel is painted in an off-white with a green oxide undertone hue, Resene Merino, which suggests a patina despite the cleanliness of the white. The white is underlined by an armament grey, serious and earnest, Resene Stack, applied on horizontal lines linking all the crafted timber windows and their keystones together. Touches of unique blue, moody and mysterious Resene Bali Hai are used in the rosettes and squares, large columns and doors at street level, and come to soften this otherwise strict feel.

The paint materials palette is all gloss with Resene Hi-Glo waterborne gloss on weatherboards complemented by Resene Enamacryl gloss waterborne enamel on trims, joinery and accents. The gloss finish makes the new colour palette and paintwork seem even fresher; a stark contrast to the dirty yellow tones it had been dressed in for decades.

While the Street façade has been fully protected, repaired and refreshed, the inward façade onto the Courtyard is now a contemporary interpretation of the Old Hotel. An original fire egress timber balcony on the upper floor was re-interpreted as a large circulation in raw timber, dressing the new opal white façade with clean slats. The contemporary mill finish aluminium corrugate, the opal polycarbonate and the row of sustainable timber screens effortlessly complement the Heritage façade colour scheme.

Architectural Specifier: Atelierworkshop
Building Contractor: Street & Cook Construction Ltd
Painting Contractor: DR (Jack) Gray Ltd
Resene Representative: Christine Hawkings, Commercial Colour Representative; Yvette Collins, Architectural Services Representative
Photographer: Russell Kleyn
Project: Resene Total Colour Awards 2012
From the Resene News – issue 3/2012

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