Bowen House is a 22-storey office building on the corner of

Lambton Quay Lambton Quay (once known as The Beach) is the heart of the central business district of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. Originally, as the name implies, it was the high-water line of the foreshore, and sometimes the sea would roll ...

and Bowen Street,

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

, New Zealand, that is leased by the

New Zealand Parliament The New Zealand Parliament ( mi, Pāremata Aotearoa) is the unicameral legislature of New Zealand, consisting of the King of New Zealand ( King-in-Parliament) and the New Zealand House of Representatives. The King is usually represented by h ...

to house some members of Parliament and government staff. The building was designed by

Warren and Mahoney Warren and Mahoney is an international architectural and interior design practice - one of the few third generation architectural practices in the history of New Zealand architecture. It is a highly awarded architectural practice, with offices ...

architects. Construction began in 1988 and was completed in 1990. It has been leased by the New Zealand Parliament since 1991. It was once owned by Government Property Services, which was privatised as Capital Properties New Zealand by a National–New Zealand First coalition government in 1998. In 2012 AMP Capital sold the building to

Farhad Vladi Farhad ( fa, فرهاد ''farhād''), also spelt Ferhaad or Ferhod, has been a Persian name for men since the Parthian Empire, Parthians, first recorded for Arsacid kings circa 170 BC. Etymology Modern Persian name ''Farhād'' () is derived from ...

, a German property investor. Bowen House contained offices for the smaller parties, select committee staff, and some of the ministers and their support staff. It is connected to the Executive Wing (the

Beehive A beehive is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus '' Apis'' live and raise their young. Though the word ''beehive'' is commonly used to describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific and professional literature ...

) of the Parliament Buildings by an underground travelator under Bowen Street. Bowen House is part of the parliamentary security system, and the government was the only tenant in the building. Some high-rise buildings in Wellington suffered damage in the November 2016 Kaikoura earthquake, notably Statistics House where some floors partially collapsed after separating from the walls. In December 2016 Wellington City Council ordered that building inspections be carried out in about 80 buildings including Bowen House. (By 2022 the Council had identified 150 buildings at possible risk.) The buildings affected by the order were all multi-storey, made out of reinforced concrete with precast hollow core concrete slab floors. In May 2019 engineers began investigating Bowen House, and In October 2019 Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard announced that engineers did not believe Bowen House was fully safe and that staff would be temporarily relocated so that the building could be strengthened. By February 2020 plans were underway to shift 600 staff after the building was declared to only reach 40% of the new building code. In 2021 Precinct Properties bought Bowen House, with plans to earthquake-strengthen and redevelop the building.

References

{{Coord, 41, 16, 45.68, S, 174, 46, 35.91, E, display=title Government buildings in New Zealand Office buildings completed in 1990 Skyscrapers in Wellington Skyscraper office buildings in New Zealand