For many years now our school canteen has served Westlake well, providing awesome food options to hungry students and staff alike.

The one thing that has been missing is a central place for students to gather and eat their lunch after purchase. The current Canteen is located in a 1970s classroom next to Gym 3 and it’s a pretty congested space! That’s about to change at the beginning of Term 2 with the opening of our new Canteen in the courtyard outside our Event Centre.

The courtyard is a beautiful space, with moveable seating, landscaped gardens, quiet spaces, and a covered area where students can sit and have lunch together. It’s already well used by students, and the addition of the Canteen will make it a one-stop-lunch-spot.

“The new Canteen, housed in an old file room, is architecturally designed not only for the Canteen contractors, but also as a modern learning space for Food Technology students,” says Westlake’s Property Manager Grant Brown.

The project began in December 2021, and will take 13 weeks to complete. It will open on Monday 2 May when students return to school after the holidays.

“The work has encompassed the removal of a large amount of shelving and walls from the former file room, which has now moved to the Event Centre. New partitions and windows were installed after rewiring, plumbing and gas installation of the entire area in hardi-glaze linings,” says Grant. As you can see below, there’s still a bit of work to do before opening!

“The architectural designs and plans were done by Houston Architects, led by Wayne Houston.  The building company was Edgecity Builders Ltd. This company is led by Nick Farrelly who is also the Vice-Chair of New Zealand Certified Builders Association. The school was fortunate to get these very respected contractors to design and build this complex, and it is very apparent in the high quality of the build.”

Not only will the new Canteen provide a gorgeous work space for our Canteen contractors, it will also provide a modern learning environment for our Food Tech and Hospitality students. What’s more, it will also be used as an industrial kitchen for groups hiring our Event Centre.

We’re looking forward to opening the serving windows in Term 2.