The Peace Arch
The Peace Arch
St Andrew’s Anglican Church
Pukekohe, Auckland.
Rebuilding a important memorial
Tasked with making a wider stronger replica of this damaged arch and retaining the historic original intricate design
The replacement Peace arch constructed by Liquidstone that was formally dedicated by the Bishop of Auckland, The Right Reverend Ross Bay, and The Reverend Jan Wallace, Vicar of St Andrew's Anglican Church Pukekohe on Anzac Day, 25th April 2024. A time capsule placed inside the arch during the service will be opened in fifty years time in 2074.
The history behind the remake of the Peace Arch came about after an incident on Monday, December 14th, 2020, when a van delivering Christmas hams to St Andrew's Anglican Church impacted the Peace Memorial arch. The majestic arch, erected in 1921 as a peace memorial, was built strongly of brick and concrete with a little steel in the core, but it was no match for the van which clipped it on the way in.
The arch collapsed, crushing the cab of the vehicle. Miraculously, the driver escaped major injury. The arch would have been 100 years old the following year, in 2021. The replacement project was driven from the outset by Mr. Richard Gibbons, a highly qualified engineer, parishioner, and member of the St Andrew's vestry at that time. The rebuild took nearly three and a half years from the initial cleanup stage, through the planning, design, funding, and consent stages, and finally the construction and on-site assembly.
Salmond Reed Architects oversaw the entire project, and Liquidstone came on board as the manufacturers of the main components in our Swanson factory. KD Construction Ltd undertook the groundwork on-site.
Liquidstone used a steel frame with bolted-on glass-reinforced concrete panels, meticulously mimicking not only the concrete exterior of the fallen arch but also the decorative motifs that had enhanced the plasterwork. Liquidstone created molds of the original using a combination of the damaged pieces and photos. The arch was repositioned about two meters further in from the street to better align with the existing structures and landscape and was made slightly wider and taller than the original.
The original upright stumps, along with remnants of the original gates, are still present, and landscaping - including seating - has been added. Several pieces of the original arch were retained by the church for historic purposes and are displayed in the gardens of the vicarage. A plaque explains their relevance.
