As former director of the Whanganui Regional Museum, Frank Stark is familiar with the eclectic architectural heritage of the river city. And when he and partner Emma Bugden bought the historic swimming baths in the suburb of Gonville, part of the package turned out to be a former fire station and out-of-use town hall, remnants of Gonville’s brief time as a separate borough.
Stark has created the Gonville Centre for Urban Research, a place “for the study and practical application of micro urbanism”. It has a fellowship programme - current fellows are locals musician Anthonie Tonnon and designer Natalie Bradburn.
Stark and Bugden have a history of taking on interesting buildings - earlier in the year they sold a former Wellington rifle range and their house in Gonville was built in 1950 from seven concrete water tanks. Stark previously founded Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, New Zealand's archive of film, television and sound.
