- Wednesday 8 September 2010
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Trust House accused of hypocrisy over talks
A Masterton man has accused Trust House of hypocrisy for sponsoring a series of talks on architecture at Aratoi while ''vandalising'' the Horseshoe at the town's northern approaches.
Market gardener Jeremy Howden said it was an irony that Trust House had put its name to the Winter Talk series, starting at Aratoi tomorrow night, when it had laid waste to the ''unique architectural beauty'' of the Horseshoe and had paid scant regard to other property he believes should have been be preserved.
Mr Howden said the Winter Talk series focused on Wairarapa architecture and had attracted some of the country's biggest names.
Among them are Ian Athfield, described in the promotional material for the series as once being the ''enfant terrible'' of New Zealand architecture and now a ''respected doyen of the profession''.
Mr Athfield is on the board of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust and his talk will centre on historic buildings.
Also involved in the series is Dean Whiting, an expert on Maori architecture, art and heritage.
Mr Howden said Trust House should ''walk the talk'' if it wanted to support such events as Winter Talk.
''The Horseshoe was a wonderful example of an early 1950s arts and crafts style building that has been vandalised, having bits added to it or covered over.
''On the northern side, timber has been tacked on to what is essentially a stucco wall. It looks terrible. Institutions like Trust House shouldn't make poor choices and leave the community all the poorer for what they do.''
Mr Howden said Trust House had no perception of historical architecture and the addition of another storey to the front of the Horseshoe showed that quite clearly.
