List of tallest buildings in Wellington

Tall buildings in Wellington
Wellington Central
Tallest building	Majestic Centre (1991)
Tallest building height	116 m (381 ft)
Number of tall buildings
20 stories or more	11 (2025)
Taller than 100 m (328 ft)	3 (2025)

The Majestic Centre, the tallest building in Wellington

The Aon Centre, the 2nd tallest building in Wellington

Dimension Data Tower (left), Forsyth Barr House, and Bayleys Building

Bowen House (left) and the Beehive

This list of tallest buildings in Wellington ranks the tallest building's in the New Zealand capital city of Wellington by height. This ranking system, created by the US-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat includes the height to a spire but not to an antenna. ^[1] The Majestic Centre is the tallest skyscraper in the city at 116 metres (381 ft).

Tallest buildings

The list below contains the top 60 buildings in the city at 50 m (164 ft) high and above. All are high-rises except for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd ranked buildings which are skyscrapers.

Name		Height [2]	Floors [2]	Built [2]	Purpose	Notes
1	Majestic Centre	116 m (381 ft)	29	1991	Office
2	Aon Centre (Wellington)	103 m (338 ft)	27	1984	Office	Originally opened as the BNZ Centre
3	HSBC Tower	101 m (331 ft)	25	2003	Office	Is 94 m to roof height and 101 m to the Spire [3]
4	NTT Tower	93 m (305 ft)	25	1998	Office	Formerly Mobil on the Park, Vodafone on the Park and Dimension Data Tower [4]
5	Bowen House	90 m (295 ft)	22	1991	Office
6	James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor	88 m (289 ft)	26	1972/1998	Hotel
7	Plimmer Towers	84 m (276 ft)	25	1975/1986	Hotel/Office	Originally opened as the Williams Centre
8	125 The Terrace	77 m (253 ft)	21	1986	Office
9	Morrison Kent House	76 m (249 ft)	21	1969	Office	[5]
10=	113 The Terrace [6]	72 m (236 ft)	19	1988	Office	Formerly PricewaterhouseCoopers Tower; currently the home of Wellington City Council [7]
	The Beehive	72 m (236 ft)	10	1981	Office
12=	111 Dixon Street [8]	70 m (230 ft)	20	2019	Residential	Tallest residential building in Wellington.
	Maritime Tower	70 m (230 ft)	18	2006	Office
	Grant Thornton House	70 m (230 ft)	18	1983	Office	Formerly known as ANZ Tower
	Westpac Tower	70 m (230 ft)	18	1978	Office
	Chews Lane Tower	70 m (230 ft)	19	2009	Office/Residential
17=	Aurora Centre [9]	68 m (223 ft)	19	1968	Office	Was the tallest building in Wellington when completed. Underwent a major facelift in 2016-17
	Equinox House [10]	68 m (223 ft)	16	1987	Office
	Radio New Zealand House	68 m (223 ft)	13	1963	Office	[11]
20=	Fujitsu Tower	66 m (217 ft)	18	1985	Office	Formerly known as Caltex Tower [12]
	Novell House	66 m (217 ft)	17	1975	Office
	No.1 The Terrace	66 m (217 ft)	17	1978	Office	Headquarters of the New Zealand Treasury
	Vogel Building	66 m (217 ft)	17	1966	Office	Was the tallest building in Wellington and the 2nd tallest building in New Zealand when built [13]
	Reserve Bank of New Zealand [14]	66 m (217 ft)	16	1972	Office	[15]
25=	AXA Tower	65 m (213 ft)	17	1989	Office
	The Freyberg Building [16]	65 m (213 ft)	15	1979	Office	The adjoining 7-storey Freyberg House (2007) was demolished after the 2016 earthquake. [17]
27	One Whitmore Street [18] [19] [20]	63 m (207 ft)	14	2023	Commercial	BNZ's Wellington office.
28	20 Customhouse Quay [21]	62 m (203 ft)	14	2018	Commercial	Replaced BP House, which was originally built in 1968 and demolished following the 2013 Seddon earthquake. [22]
29	Charles Fergusson Building	61 m (200 ft)	17	1976	Office
30	New Zealand Police National Headquarters	60.47 m (198 ft)	17	1979	Office	[23] Formerly FAI Insurance House.
31=	Bolton Hotel	60 m (197 ft)	20	2004	Hotel
	Sovereign Insurance Centre	60 m (197 ft)	17	1984	Office
	Bayleys Building	60 m (197 ft)	16	1989	Office
	Two Hunter Street	60 m (197 ft)	16	1991	Office
	City Tower	60 m (197 ft)	16	1991	Office
	Jellioce Towers	60 m (197 ft)	16	1965	Residential	Was the tallest residential building in Wellington when built [24]
	Forsyth Barr House	60 m (197 ft)	16	1989	Office
	Pastoral House	60 m (197 ft)	15	1978	Office
39=	Rydges Hotel	57 m (187 ft)	16	2006	Hotel	Originally opened as a Holiday Inn
	Alcatel Lucent House	57 m (187 ft)	15	1988	Office	Formerly Telecom House
41=	Quest on Johnston	55 m (180 ft)	18	2000	Hotel
	Terrace Heights Apartments [25]	55 m (180 ft)	17	1999	Residential
	Stafford House	55 m (180 ft)	14	1977	Residential	Originally an office block, now university housing.
	Avalon Studios	55 m (180 ft)	11	1969	Office	Lower Hutt. Tallest building in the Wellington region outside of the Wellington CBD.
45	Sir Robert Jones Tower	52 m (171 ft)	14	2019	Office	[26]
46	National War Memorial	51 m (167 ft)		1932	Bell and clock tower
47=	20 Oriental Parade	50 m (164 ft)	16		Residential
	Mercer Tower	50 m (164 ft)	15	1989	Office
	Public Trust Building	50 m (164 ft)	15	1982	Office
	Investment House	50 m (164 ft)	15	1977	Office
	Simpl House	50 m (164 ft)	15	1987	Office
	Willeston Centre [27]	50 m (164 ft)	14 [28]	1984?	Office	Originally the Colonial Mutual Life Insurance Building. [29]
	AMI Plaza [30]	50 m (164 ft)	14		Office
	Rutherford House	50 m (164 ft)	14	1975	Office	Originally the headquarters of the NZ Electricity Department. [31]
	Sovereign House	50 m (164 ft)	14	1988	Office
	Castrol House	50 m (164 ft)	14	1987	Office
	Westpac Trust Investment House	50 m (164 ft)	14	1982	Office
	Technology One House	50 m (164 ft)	13	1987	Office	Formerly known as the Renouf Centre and Terenco Finance House
	BNZ Trust House	50 m (164 ft)	13	1985	Office
	Guardian Trust House	50 m (164 ft)	13	1984	Office
	Optimation House	50 m (164 ft)	12	1979	Office	[32]
	Pinnacle on Victoria [33]	50 m (164 ft)	17	2021	Residential

Under construction, approved or proposed

Name		Height [2]	Floors [2]	Built [2]	Purpose	Notes
1	109 Featherston Street Tower [34]	89 m (292 ft)	19		Commercial	Approved resource consent
2	110 Wakefield Street Tower	86 m (282 ft)	22		Commercial	Approved resource consent
3	151 Willis St concept tower [35]	134 m (440 ft)	32		Mixed-use

Demolished

Name	Height	Floors	Built	Purpose	Notes
Revera House	50 m (164 ft)	10	1990 [36]	Office	Formerly AT&T Tower and Hitachi House. Demolished 2018 [37] following damage due to the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake. [38]
61 Molesworth St	37 m (121 ft)	10	1965	Office	Formerly ICI House. Demolished 2016-2017 [39] [40] following damage due to the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake. To be replaced with a new 11/12-storey office building. [41] [42]

Cancelled

Name	Height*	Floors*	Notes
NZ1	263 m (863 ft)[ failed verification ]	63	A high rise commercial and mixed use building proposed for Lambton Quay. Project was scrapped after the developer went bankrupt. If completed, the building would have been New Zealand's tallest. [43] [44]
Lambton Tower	≈120 metres (394 ft)	31	Proposed in 1991 for the Wellington waterfront. [45]
Wakefield Central	≈75 metres (246 ft)	20	Proposed in 1986 by Chase Corporation on the site now occupied by Courtenay Central. [46] [47] [48]

History of the tallest buildings in Wellington

Name	Height	Years Tallest	Other Facts
MLC Building	45 m (148 ft)	1939-1961	9 stories high. Was arguably the tallest in NZ when built
Shell House	46 m (151 ft)	1961-1966	Tallest office building in NZ when built. [49]
Vogel Building	66 m (217 ft)	1966-1968	Was the 2nd tallest in NZ when built
Aurora Centre	68 m (223 ft)	1968-1969	Was the 2nd tallest in NZ when built
Morrison Kent House	76 m (249 ft)	1969-1975	Was the 2nd tallest in NZ (to 1 Queen Street, Auckland) when built
Plimmer Towers	85 m (279 ft)	1975-1984	Was the tallest in NZ when built, is 106m and 31 floors from the Lambton Quay side of the tower
AON Centre	103 m (338 ft)	1984-1991	Was the tallest in NZ when built and is one of Wellington's most iconic buildings
Majestic Centre	116 m (381 ft)	1991–present	Is the furthest south skyscraper in the world. Was the tallest in New Zealand when built until the ANZ Centre opened in Auckland a few months later.

See also

• List of tallest buildings in Auckland
• List of tallest buildings in Christchurch
• List of tallest buildings in Oceania

References

1. CTBUH Height Criteria. CTBUH. Retrieved on 4 March 2013.
2. "Buildings of Wellington". Archived from the original on 9 April 2013. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
3. "Google Earth". earth.google.com. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
4. "Google Earth". earth.google.com. Retrieved 9 August 2021.
5. "Morrison Kent House – Emporis". Archived from the original on 2 September 2019.
6. "113 The Terrace for Wellington City Council refurbishment & fitout". Workspace Architects.
7. "Emporis- PWC Tower". Archived from the original on 2 September 2019.
8. "111 Dixon Street- Emporis".^{[ dead link ]}
9. "Emporis- Aurora Centre".
10. "Equinox House- Emporis". Archived from the original on 7 September 2021.
11. "Emprois- Radio New Zealand House". Archived from the original on 6 December 2021.
12. Ray Pigney (10 December 1988). "View of The Terrace, Wellington, from Talavera Terrace - Photograph taken by Ray Pigney". National Library of NZ.
13. "Emporis- Vogel Building". Archived from the original on 2 September 2019.
14. "Reserve Bank building". Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand.
15. "Emporis- Reserve Bank of New Zealand". Archived from the original on 13 September 2021.
16. "Freyberg Building". Precinct Properties.
17. "Why did modern Wellington buildings fail in Kaikoura quake?". New Zealand Herald. 18 November 2016.
18. "One Whitmore Street".
19. "Wellington skyline gets a facelift as BNZ's new building in the central city officially opens". BNZ. 20 June 2024.
20. Marta Steeman (12 December 2019). "Base-isolated and Green star building to be developed for the BNZ HQ in Wellington". Stuff.co.nz.
21. 20 Customhouse Quay – Official site
22. Schouten, Hank (28 March 2015). "$80m hi-tech tower to replace Wellington's BP House". The Dominion Post . Retrieved 13 January 2020.
23. "New Zealand Police Headquarters". Emporis. Archived from the original on 4 October 2018.
24. "Jellioce Towers". Archived from the original on 6 December 2021.
25. "163 The Terrace, Wellington". Property Values NZ. Archived from the original on 24 December 2022.
26. "Emporis- Sir Robert Jones Tower". Archived from the original on 9 December 2021.
27. The Wellington Company – Willeston Centre
28. Emporis – Sovereign Centre ^{[ usurped ]}
29. Julie Iles (6 June 2017). "Top floor with waterfront views for sale in central Wellington". Stuff.co.nz.
30. "AMI Plaza, Wellington". Emporis. Archived from the original on 30 October 2021.
31. Friends of Te Papa – Rutherford House Art Collection
32. "Emporis- Optimation House". Archived from the original on 6 December 2021.
33. "Pinnacle City Residence". Stratum Management.
34. "109 Featherston". Athfield Architects.
35. Wingate Architects (20 September 2021). "Wellington project". Wingate Architects. Archived from the original on 21 October 2020.
36. "AT&T Tower Emporis". Archived from the original on 9 December 2021.
37. "Revera House in Wellington to be demolished, says spokesman". Stuff . Retrieved 16 September 2019.
38. "Revera House slated for destruction". RNZ. 3 April 2017.
39. Melissa Nightingale (24 November 2016). "Demolition work of earthquake-damaged 61 Molesworth St building in Wellington to begin today". The New Zealand Herald .
40. John Weekes (2 February 2017). "New chapter for 61 Molesworth St as demolished building handed back to owner". Stuff.
41. "61 Molesworth Street". Precinct Properties.
42. "61 Molesworth Street". Jasmax Architects.
43. "Lambton Quay NZ1 Tallest Building Design Proposal". Architecture Design NZ. Archived from the original on 24 January 2023.
44. Chloe Winter (7 March 2016). "Terry Serepisos companies owe millions, despite sale of all available assets". Stuff News NZ.
45. Kate Chapman (13 July 2015). "Wellington's waterfront – 20 years in the making (Picture 6 of 13)". Dominion Post.
46. "It's sold. What next?". Scoop. 9 January 2025.
47. Carole van Grondelle (19 July 1986). "Planned tower over height limit". The Dominion.
48. "Hotel-shop giant planned". The Evening Post. 19 July 1986.
49. "Shell House (Former)". Wellington City Council – Wellington City Heritage. Retrieved 15 October 2021.

External links

• Emporis.com Wellington High-rise Buildings ^{[ usurped ]}