Venue: Auckland Town Hall
Town: Auckland, NZ

The Auckland Town Hall is an Edwardian building on Queen Street in the Auckland CBD, New Zealand, known both for its original and ongoing use for administrative functions (such as Council meetings and hearings), as well as its famed Great Hall and separate Concert Chamber. Auckland Town Hall and its surrounding context is highly protected as a 'Category A' heritage site in the Auckland District Plan, registered by Heritage New Zealand as a Category I Historic Place. Since as early as 1872, there were plans to create a town hall for the city of Auckland. The corner of Greys Avenue and Queen Street was chosen as the location in 1880, and the corner was requisitioned by a formal act of parliament, the Auckland Reserves Exchange and Change of Trust Act 1881. The area proved to be too small, so the municipal government purchased the adjoining properties in 1883. A design competition for the building was held in 1908, which was won by Melbourne-based architects JJ & EJ Clark. Construction began after the foundation stone was laid by mayor Arthur Myers on 24 February 1909, and the building was officially opened on 14 December 1911 by Lord Islington, Governor of New Zealand, the building is one of the most prominent heritage structures on Queen Street. Costing £126,000 (approximately $21 million in 2017) to construct, the building was constructed of Oamaru limestone, with a Melbourne bluestone base, and incorporates a 40-metre high clocktower. The five-storey Italian Renaissance Revival design bears a resemblance to the Lambeth Town Hall at Brixton, London, built at around the same time. The Town Hall formed Auckland's first permanent seat of both administration and entertainment in the city's history, with its Great Hall (seating 1,673 people) modelled on the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and considered as having among the finest acoustics in the world. Auckland residents had mixed opinions of the building after it was constructed, with some likening it to a cheese wedge or a fla