Check out what’s been happening at Monkeytoe in November & December in our latest monthly news feature.
A note from Budd
Hi everyone,
Welcome to the end of another grand year! By now, I hope you’ve got your summer planned out and some well-deserved rest in the calendar, as well as some time with the important people in your life.
2022 has been a busy one for us here at Monkeytoe, made possible by the good sorts in all departments and our supportive clients and industry peers. Thank you for making this an other excellent year, and we look forward to an exciting 2023.
For our last issue for the year, we look back at some highlights from the last 12 months, cover a couple of recent projects, introduce one of our Project Support specialists , and then put up our feet.
Stay safe out there, enjoy your break, and we’ll see
you early in 2023 for more great innovations.
Cheers,
Budd
Getting to know Taylor White, Project Support
If you’ve been on our LinkedIn lately, then you’ll have seen our video of a day in the life of Taylor White, one of our Project Support people.
Originally from Australia, Taylor has extensive experience in hospitality and retail, and in her previous role would often be the person flown into the launch of a new store to help them open up in the best possible way. Ready for a change of pace, she moved to Aotearoa New Zealand with her partner and kids just before Covid struck – but soon found her footing and her new home here with us at Monkeytoe.
Taylor’s role is all about ensuring projects run as they should, often by checking in with project managers, keeping good communication lines open, and assisting by putting the right tools in the right places. While she’s worked on countless projects, one that stands out recently has been getting to go behind-the-scenes at the massive job we’ve done with the Tākina Wellington Convention and Exhibition Centre.
With a love of the great outdoors, Taylor makes time to ground herself in nature, often taking the kids out to explore, camp and fish around Taranaki, or taking the kids to their sports games. There’s still a lot of the country for Taylor to explore, so if you have any good recommendations then make sure you let her know when you next see her on site.
Twelve months of Monkeytoe
January
We started the new year strong with a massive project for the massive Maraetai Dam that can provide 360MW to the Waikato. It’s provided them with a safer scaffolding solution that makes penstock management that much easier – and will last them a lifetime in wet conditions.
February
This month was all about giving back to a few worthwhile groups we love to support: Little Fighters, St John, and Open Home Foundation/Te Whare Kaupapa Āwhina of New Zealand. And with a few late summer cyclones battering the country, we were able to quickly develop and deploy innovative bridge solutions to keep our communities’ infrastructure strong.
March
Before 500+ architects, Dallas Jensen asked the big question: Are you still using 20th century materials in your platform projects? Steel has had its day. Today, if you want unparalleled performance for structures, access solutions and mounts, then aluminium can’t be beaten – and that’s why it’s time to consider what the 21st century has to offer.
April
Saint Moritz and Richmond Quarter, both in Victoria, needed premium acoustic panelling – and Monkeytoe were more than happy to oblige with solutions that would be at home in private beachfront residences and in mixed-use commercial/retail/residential apartments. Now plant machinery and HVAC hardware stays out of sight, and out of mind – making the visit to each space all the more pleasurable.
May
We launched our hotly-anticipated redeveloped condenser mounts, massively increasing the loading capabilities of our mounts right off the shelf – and opening the door to new possibilities for projects across the country. Glen Thomas of our Research and Development division also wrote an easy-to-understand breakdown of the different building codes we use across Australasia – and explained why the Monkeytoe development and engineering team invest a lot of time to ensure our products are fit for purpose and safe.
June
new opportunities across the industry and changing how engineers, architects and designers think about residential spaces across the country.We were ecstatic to launch XBEAM Residential into Australia, helping open the door to exciting.
July
12 years after the Christchurch earthquake destroyed their school, Marian College’s students finally got a new permanent home – with XBEAM platforms playing their part. We also celebrated our high-tensile, marine-grade aluminium solutions at New Zealand’s flagship Costco store, and helped support stroke survivors with Beanie Up.
August
Developed over 22 months, Ormiston Town Centre is your place to shop, eat and play – and we had our hand in developing access and mounting solutions to keep everyone comfortable and safe. August also saw us work in the affluent Remuera, Auckland, to provide discreet, powder-coated acoustic screening of a development’s HVAC equipment.
September
Our condenser mounts finally reached shelves across Australia, handling weights from 120kg to 1,000kg with our improved designs. We gave away some Monkeytoe thongs to help you stay cool.
October
Bundaberg’s not just a township in Queensland – it’s also the home to the world-famous Bundaberg brewed drinks brand. We leapt at the chance to work on their new factory – and help prepare them for whatever the coastal conditions would throw at them. And we chatted with Development Manager Logan Klenner about what innovation means to us here at Monkeytoe.
November
We recently completed works at Project Kelly, two massive film studios in Auckland that we delivered with Haydn & Rollett. The Aotearoa New Zealand film industry produces some world-class content, so we knew our part had to deliver in a way that would live up to international standards.
Huge air conditioning platforms, stairs, and 800m of latticework trusses all put special demands on a film space. Not only do these units have to be functional, but critically they also have to be isolated and prevented from transmitting vibration and noise into the studio spaces.
Our part started in mid 2021, with the installation just wrapping up. We worked with the structural and design engineers on the job to develop a hanging ply-decked XBEAM walkway that ran from portal to portal, as well as some huge aircon platforms outside, ladders, and central-column stairs with acoustic breaks built in. The walkway handrails were engineered to allow the studios to hang lighting and speakers off it safely – something that they were able to do, having saved a lot of weight by switching from steel to aluminium.
It was a complex, six-week install that required us to feed up modular segments of each solution and assemble in situ. But the result was ideal: more floor space for the studio to use, and enough vibration elimination to keep things quiet on set.
December
Last year, we were approached by the Department of Conservation (DoC) to replace the tired single-span timber bridge on the Christchurch to Little River Rail Trail cycleway. This was a great chance to work as a collaborative team with DoC.
This sort of project is well within our wheelhouse – and who wouldn’t want to spend some time in a picture-perfect countryside? We collaborated with DoC for over a year on this project to make sure an aluminium-based bridge solution would be engineered with plenty of tolerance for the earthquake-prone Canterbury region.
Once we’d surpassed stringent new design and engineering requirements, and aligned the 17.5m single-span bridge with DoC’s engineers and peer reviewers, we manufactured the bridge at our Taranaki base and shipped it down to Christchurch.
DoC organised a helicopter to collect the bridge. After a 16 min flight down the road, we bolted it all together and that was it – all done in three quarters of a day, with zero issues on site.
Christmas break
We hope you’ll be making some time to have a well-deserved break this summer. Mark it in your calendars: the Monkeytoe offices will be closed from the 23rd December, and we’ll be back at it on the 9th January.
See you next year!
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+61 1800 953 047 (international)
