New Zealand Parliament Buildings

[2] The main building of the complex is Parliament House, containing the debating chamber, speaker's office, visitors' centre, and committee rooms.

The first Parliament (then called the "General Assembly") was housed in the wooden two storey Provincial Council Building (1870s addition by William Clayton).

[3] Following the destruction of the building the Parliament occupied the adjacent Government House (where the Beehive now sits) for ten years.

However, members of Parliament (MPs) were so desperate to get out of the run-down old Government House that they moved into the unfinished building in 1918.

Parliament House was finally officially opened in 1995 by Elizabeth II, Queen of New Zealand, after its refurbishment.

The intention of the Liberal Government was for the design to be implemented in stages, eventually resulting in a coherent architectural setting.

Instead, as Heritage New Zealand remarks, the setting that has been achieved "has little aesthetic or architectural coherence",[2] especially through the construction of the Beehive instead of completion of Parliament House.

[9][10] It takes the place of what was formerly Parliament's carpark, and is designed to house MPs that can no longer be accommodated in the main building.

This building conceived by British architect Sir Basil Spence in 1964, largely designed by the Ministry of Works, was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II in 1977.

Not part of the current parliamentary complex and on the other side of Lambton Quay, this four-storey building was designed by William Clayton and built in 1876.