TEAM Architects Wellington, Peter Beaumont wins Resene Lifetime Achievement Award in colour!
TEAM Architects Wellington, Peter Beaumont wins Resene Lifetime Achievement Award in colour!
Last updated:
12 Mar 2025
Peter Beaumont’s 40-plus year architectural career began after graduating in 1983 with a Bachelor of Architecture (which equates to the current Master of Architecture Programme) from Victoria University of Wellington. He graduated first equal out of his year group.
Peter’s initiation into the industry was working as an Architectural Graduate for the Architecture Division of the Ministry of Works. There he worked on numerous projects, most significantly he was on the design team for the new National Library of New Zealand where he was responsible for the wayfinding. His implementation and use of colours was awakened.
As the industry changed in the late 1980’s Peter moved on to working as a sole practitioner, at the same time taking on the role as a part-time lecturer in Communication and Management at the VUW School of Architecture and raising a young family.
The Gateway Apartment Refurbishment was one of Peter’s notable projects during this time. The Roseneath Project was awarded a NZIA Resene Local Award and NZIA Resene Colour Award in 2002.
Peter formed Bell Kelly Beaumont Team Architects practice with a former student colleague in 2003 and was the director that oversaw the design direction of the new practice.
Peter continued to complete diverse and successful projects throughout New Zealand, including residential alterations and new builds; various Fire Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) projects; and the acclaimed adaptive reuse, heritage project that created the Wellington SPCA hub in the former Fever Hospital, on Mt Victoria in Wellington. Peter was recognised as a Fellow of the NZIA in March 2010.
Peter’s passion for colour is most evident in the Education sector, completing numerous early childhood, primary, secondary and kura projects during his career. A major achievement of Peter’s work in this sector was Kimi Ora Special Needs School, Naenae in 2010. The School was the first within New Zealand to achieve both a Design Green-star rating and As-Build Green-star rating. The project was awarded three NZIA Wellington Architectural Awards recognising public architecture, sustainability achievements and novel use of colour. The Resene Colour Award citation reads:
“Here is a project where colour is a true partner in the design strategy. With real delight, it is introduced and integrated on a number of levels.
Colour is used as zoning code markers, as accent, to uplift and have dialogue with light, then to calm and ultimately reassure, confirming that this is a learning environment where every element has a sensory role in that learning.”
One of the biggest architectural challenges Peter took on was becoming his own client when he designed and built his own house on one of the most inaccessible, but sun-drenched, hillsides in Wellington. This project was a testament to Peter’s tenacity, skill and flair as an Architect who isn’t afraid to experiment with colour.
After a successful 40-plus year career, Peter has recently retired. One of his lasting legacies is passing on his passion, knowledge and bravery/confidence in colour, and the knowledge of associated subtle benefits that condition how people interact with and use space, to numerous colleagues and architectural graduates during his career.
TEAM Architects doors are always open to Peter’s colourful character, sound advice and good humour.