Dixon Street Flats

The Flats from halfway up the Dixon Street steps

The Dixon Street Flats in central Wellington were completed in 1944[1] (1947 in Kernohan[2]) as part of the first Labour Government's state housing program. They were designed by the chief architect of the Department of Housing Construction Gordon Wilson. The Austrian born architect Ernst Plischke was employed by the Department of Housing Construction at the time of the design and is popularly thought to have had considerable influence over the Dixon Street design, even though there is no documentary evidence to support this.[1] It was awarded the NZIA gold medal in 1947. It is considered to be the archetype of Modernist apartment blocks in New Zealand. The building was the first major high-rise building and first major apartment block to be completed in Wellington after the Second World War.[2] Ten stories high, it contained 115 one-bedroom flats plus a two-bedroom caretaker's flat.

A woman drying washing on the roof of the flats (around 1940)

The building was classified in 1997 as a "Category 1" ("places of special or outstanding historical or cultural heritage significance or value") historic place by Heritage New Zealand.[1]

In 2016, after an elderly resident died and was not found for two weeks, Housing New Zealand, in conjunction with the Presbyterian church in Wellington, started having weekly cups of tea to help build a community.[3]