The Ferry Building emerged as the jewel in the crown of Auckland Harbour Board engineer W.H. Hamer’s massive 1904 redevelopment plan for the then ramshackle port. Harbour board engineers were more important than any architect then, and Hamer’s plan for a new Queen Street wharf included ferry tees (completed in 1907) and this brick and Pyrmont stone office block. Alexander Wiseman’s English baroque ‘handsome pile’, as it was called, took longer to build than planned, since people objected to new buildings blocking harbour views even then, but since 1912 the Ferry Building has housed a variety of mainly shipping industry tenants. Source Auckland Ferry Building and Tees.
Auckland Ferry Downtown Terminal forms part of the heritage landscape of Auckland, learn more about Heritage buildings in Auckland.
