with a new one on an existing government reserve at Seacliff 25 km from Dunedin. Once the council was abolished in 1876 responsibility for the complex passed to the Public Works Department, who had a policy that for any building of magnitude a private architect should be employed. Accordingly with regard to Seacliff, William Blair who was Engineer in Charge of the Middle Island (South Island) entered into communication with the Minister for Public Works who authorised him to communicate with Lawson. Blair had been chairman of the building committee for the Knox Church and had been influential in obtaining for Lawson the design of both that building and the later Otago Boys High School. After a meeting between Blair and Lawson, the architect was formally requested by letter to undertake the work, Lawson replied on 17 July 1878 accepting the commission. Lawson’s only previous experience with designing such a building had been that of the Dunedin Benevolent Institution in the 1860s. Lawson decided to design the building in the Scottish Baronial style. Designed to house 500 patients and 50 staff on its completion the Seacliff Lunatic Asylum was upon its completion New Zealand's largest building for the next 50 years. Architecturally, this was Lawson at his most exuberant, extravagant and adventurous: Otago Boys High School seems almost severe and restrained in comparison. Turrets on corbels project from nearly every corner; the gabled roof line is dominated by a mammoth tower complete with further turrets and a spire. The edifice broadly E shaped ground plan was long by wide. The great tower, actually designed so that the inmates could be observed should they attempt to escape, was almost tall. It was later said of the design that "the Victorians might not have wanted their lunatics living with them, but they liked to house them grandly". As well as designing the permanent building Lawson also designed a temporary wooden building to accommodate sixty male patients and staff above the site for the new permanent building. Construction commenced on site in September 1879 and soon became apparent that parts of the site were unstable, first at the site of temporary building, before structural problems within the permanent building began to manifest themselves even before completion in July 1884 at a cost of £78,000. Finally in 1887 a major landslip occurred which rendered the north wing unsafe and it was eventually to be