About The Architect

James Augustus Louis Hay  was born at Akaroa on 14 January 1881. The family moved in 1895 to Napier where Louis attended Napier Boys' High School. The following year he joined the architectural firm of C. T. Natusch as an articled pupil. He later moved to the practice of Walter Finch, and around 1904 was employed by the Department of Lands and Survey in Invercargill. Hay had returned to Napier by 1906 and within three years had set up his own architectural practice. Except for a brief period of employment in Sydney during 1908, he was to remain in Napier for the rest of his life.

From 1909 Hay's work built steadily. Most of his early briefs were domestic, often for wealthy Hawke's Bay landowners who wanted grand villa-style houses. Although he was strongly influenced by Natusch, Hay's designs reflected his personal enthusiasm for English Arts and Crafts interior fittings and leadlight windows that alluded to Louis Comfort Tiffany and European Art Nouveau. The impact of the California bungalow-style and Hay's fascination with the work of Frank Lloyd Wright became evident by 1915 in his design for Otatara at Taradale. The quality of his work soon brought him wide recognition.

It was at this time that he also developed a close friendship with Gerhard Husheer, the director of the National Tobacco Company.  Together, they started the design for refurbishing Husheer’s plantation house on Bluff Hill, and a new Tobacco Company headquarters building.  The Tobacco Company headquarters was built in the late 1920s.  But, the plantation was still awaiting work when the 1931 earthquake hit Napier.

At the time of the 1931 earthquake, in which his wife Margaret was seriously injured, Hay was working on St Paul's Presbyterian Church. Like many of Napier's unsupported masonry buildings, the church was destroyed. Hay soon became a member of the Napier Reconstruction Committee. He also helped to establish an association of local architects to cope with the volume of work, and prevent out-of-town architects monopolising the rebuilding design work.

Characteristically, Hay's newest National Tobacco Company building (1933), AMP building (1933) and his Hawke's Bay Art Gallery and Museum (1935) derived their ornament from the fashionable art deco motifs and from the work of American architects Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright. He also redesigned Husheer’s plantation house by adding a second story and outfitting the house in Art Deco motifs, Art Nouveau leadlighting and brasswork, and strengthening the Arts & Crafts roots of the mansion.

A sociable man, Louis Hay was well known in Napier not only as an architect but as a boat builder, oarsman, waterskier and actor. He was also a noted flautist who at one time seriously considered a musical career but rejected it as too precarious. Despite his success Hay was somewhat contemptuous of small-town life; he resented the fact that lack of money and, later, ill health, meant that he was never able to travel overseas. He had to rely for inspiration on the many foreign architectural periodicals he received, which makes the breadth of his architectural references all the more extraordinary. Louis Hay died in 1948.

 
About The Masters Lodge  •  About Hawkes Bay & Napier  •  Lodge Events & Packages  •  Activities & Attractions  •  Reviews & Comments  •  Rates & Bookings  •  Contact Us

"The Master's Lodge boutique lodgings offer luxury hotel style accommodation situated in Napier, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand (NZ). Our retreat offers elegant bed and breakfast with optional gourmet dinners, spa options, and wedding and honeymoon packages."