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Story: Hawke’s Bay region

Chicago School

  • National Tobacco Company building Napier
  • Close up National Tobacco Company building Napier

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The Chicago School style of architecture is associated with the work of American architect Louis Sullivan, who pioneered the use of concrete buildings clad around a steel frame with minimal decoration. A favourite decorative form of Sullivan’s was the arch within a cube, which is replicated in Napier’s well-known National Tobacco Company building (1933) in the suburb of Ahuriri. Though the art-nouveau style decoration on the front entrance is striking and what viewers tend to remember, most of the building is very plain.

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Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

by Jock Phillips

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How to cite this page

Kerryn Pollock, Hawke’s Bay region – Arts, culture and built heritage, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/interactive/23931/chicago-school (accessed 25 June 2026).

Story by Kerryn Pollock, published 22 January 2010, updated 1 July 2015.