Four things stand out, and they show up in every tertiary project we take on: how universities think about the future of their campuses, how they approach ageing assets, what it takes to deliver major new facilities, and what it means to build inside an environment that never stops.
Future-proofing and change of use
Universities are making long-term decisions in a world that is moving quickly. A master plan might reflect a vision that is five or ten years out, but the buildings being delivered today still need to make sense for much longer than that. The institutions that get this right are looking at where the world is heading, not just where it is now. Enrolment growth, shifting research priorities, ageing infrastructure, and entirely new fields of study have a way of outpacing even the most carefully considered plans.
One of the clearest examples of forward-looking change of use we have been part of is the Kōawa Digital Campus at the University of Canterbury. What was once the School of Education, a collection of buildings that had reached the edge of their useful life, has been reimagined as a world-class hub for gaming, cinema and screen production. Most buildings were retained and repurposed rather than demolished, which was both a practical and a sustainable decision. The result is a campus drawing students and commercial partners alike, generating real revenue for the university, and attracting industry collaborators at a level that simply did not exist before.
What fifteen years teaches you about projects like this is that the vision is rarely the hardest part. Holding the line through years of staged business case approvals, personnel changes, and the pressure of stakeholders whose expectations run well ahead of the programme, that is where delivery is tested. On Kōawa, the team stayed close to the remaining university leaders, kept the programme moving and never lost sight of what the project was trying to achieve. The result is a campus that is now full, functioning and earning the university a return.
To top it off, in June 2026 the Kōawa Post-Production Building took out the Education Property Award at the Property Council New Zealand Property Industry Awards, recognition that speaks to what the project set out to achieve from the start.
Kōawa Post-Production Building
The refurbish-or-rebuild question is rarely straightforward
Every campus carries buildings at different points in their lifecycle. Understanding what you have, and what is worth investing in, is one of the most important things a university can do with its property portfolio. Cost is always part of the decision, but it is never the whole picture. Sustainability, structural and seismic performance, heritage, building condition, and long-term campus strategy all play a role.
The Rehua Building at Canterbury is a strong example of what committed refurbishment looks like in practice. Following a thorough post-earthquake condition assessment, the university made the decision to retain and strengthen the building. What followed was a complex, multi-layered programme which included structural strengthening throughout, BRB bracing installations across occupied floor areas, and a full facade renewal on a building that presented real technical challenges at every turn. Working within an existing structure always surfaces complexity that a new build does not, and holding quality and programme together through that requires close collaboration and a consistent standard of care from everyone involved.
What we took from that project is something we carry into every asset conversation we have now. Our role is to work through the options carefully alongside the university, understand the full picture of costs, risks, and long-term outcomes, and then commit fully to delivering the best possible result within the path chosen. The Rehua Building is well used, well regarded, and doing exactly what a university building should do. That is what good refurbishment, done with the right team around it, can achieve.
University of Canterbury Rehua Building
Major new facilities demand consistency over years, not months
Major new tertiary facilities are technically demanding projects. Briefs evolve, markets shift and programmes span years. Holding it all together requires consistency, transparency and change management discipline all the way through.
The University of Otago Medical School in Christchurch is the kind of project that tests every part of a project management team. It is 17,500 square metres of bespoke research, teaching and clinical space, delivered over more than four years of construction, with a gestation period stretching back to before the 2011 earthquakes. The building is heavily serviced throughout, with significant seismic and interface design coordination at every level. Thousands of bespoke solutions were required to keep things moving, in a market that was volatile at the outset and remained challenging throughout.
When things get hard, transparency with the people funding the project is what keeps the relationship intact. On a project of this scale and duration, the steering committee needs to feel genuinely informed, not managed. Regular, honest reporting that gives a clear picture of where things stand, is what builds the kind of trust that holds a project together over years, not just months.
It is not only the client relationship that demands that level of care. The Otago Medical School facility houses decades of irreplaceable research material, including biological samples that requires uninterrupted cold storage during migration between buildings. There is no contingency for getting that wrong. The more complex the project, the more your team needs to understand not just how to build, but what is at stake for the people and the institution on the other side.
Working within live campus environments
Almost every tertiary project happens inside a campus that never stops. Students are crossing the site, researchers are running experiments three walls away, and academics are being asked to vacate offices and trust that everything will be exactly where they left it when they return. This is not a secondary consideration. It sits at the centre of how every tertiary project needs to be planned and managed.
On the Kōawa Digital Campus, buildings were completed and handed over in stages while construction continued directly alongside. At no point did the campus stop functioning. During the Canterbury earthquake remediation programme, our team was relocating faculty members across a disrupted campus while simultaneously keeping a large programme of urgent repairs on track. That kind of work demands a team that understands how people use their spaces before a single hoarding goes up.
What experience gives you here is the ability to stay adaptable without losing your grip on the programme. Conditions change, handover dates shift, and a neighbouring faculty needs access that was not in the original plan. Responding to that without destabilising the broader programme is a skill that requires institutional knowledge, and one that compounds with every project.
What fifteen years actually gives you
Spend enough time working inside New Zealand's universities and you develop a particular appreciation for what these environments ask of a project team. Every campus carries its own history, its own culture, and its own cast of people who care deeply about what happens to the spaces they work and learn in.
What holds each project together is a combination of things: the ability to stay the course through difficult stretches, the honesty to have hard conversations early, and the consistency to bring the same quality of thinking to every phase of every project. That is what fifteen years of tertiary work has built, and it is what we bring to every new engagement in this sector.
Universities are making consequential decisions about their campuses right now, decisions that will shape how they attract students, support researchers, and serve their communities for decades to come. Being part of those conversations, and contributing meaningfully to the outcomes that follow, is exactly the kind of work we are here to do.
University of Canterbury Rehua Building
