Inner City Residential

Just a short note to alert residents of the Inner City to a meeting for a possible formation of an inner-city Residents Association. It’s on Monday 1st September, at 5.30pm at the Southern Cross Bar in Abel Smith St.  

Initially an initiative of Grant Robertson, the Labour candidate for Wellington Central, and echoing a similar initiative from Mark Blumsky, a National MP and former mayor, who was keen on setting up a Cuba St association, it seems that everyone wants to get into the hearts and minds of the residents of the inner city - goodness me, it must be election year. 

Cynicism aside, its probably a well-overdue and much needed initiative, as residents of the inner city have so few rights compared to other residents of the city. While the well-heeled suburbanite readers may scoff at this, remember that there are stringent rules protecting the suburbs in terms of daylight recession planes, site coverage, usage, and access, with mandatory standards for parking, footpaths, etc. None of these rules apply to the inner city. Its sobering to think that only a couple of decades ago, inner city living was almost unheard of, and was in

…

Property Council conference 08

Passing along the waterfront last night, on a wettish, cold, windy Wednesday evening, I was bemused to find Shed 5 packed to the gills with large men in suits - but then I remembered - of course - the Property Council of New Zealand is in town for their annual conference. The theme for this year is Building Succesful Cities, and so its interesting to see who they have speaking, and what they have planned to excite those giants of the NZ property owning world.

Wednesday started off with a range of corporate activities such as clay bird shooting, rifle shooting, golf, archery, sheep vs people, and axe throwing, followed up by a visit to the BNZ, a site tour of the new Chews Lane, cocktails at the Meridian Building, and then dinner at Shed 5. Personally, I would love to see the property moguls emulating sheep-dogs, but am somewhat wary of the fact that they’re being instructed in axe throwing (note to self: never combine axe-throwing with dwarf-throwing - it could get messy).

Thursday starts off with a welcome from Mayor Kerry Prendergast, and then speeches from Bob Carr (Aussie ex-premier), Roger Douglas (ex-labour MP,

…

Beauty, Damnation and Architecture

Yesterday we had a rather interesting talk from Sam Kebbel of Kebbell Daish Architects, discussing Joanna Langford’s The Beautiful and the Damned - a piece currently installed in the Michael Hirschfeld Gallery.

The artwork creates an ethereal urban skyline, pieced together from the glowing windows of unbalanced buildings, with a sharp scale shift provided by the odd street lamp. This is all constructed from the soft glows of backlit computer keyboards, and the odd street level LED - producing a memorable, sublime image of the urban landscape. (more in the introduction)

The stunning use of materials is a great neighbour to Fiona Hall’s Force Fields, which feature similarly inquisitive recylcings, except utilised at a smaller, and more natural scale.

Between Sam’s lecture and the audience discussion, the piece was given a number of architectural interpretations and contexts. To try and assert some sort of common-thread to the discussion, the artwork seemed to speak of unfulfilled - but beautiful - promises - a decaying utopianism, whether it be….

The end of the architecture as iconography, as spectacle?

The tragically flawed agendas of socialism and modernity?

The odd beauty that can be found in decay?

The …

Snip Snap: Sardines, Oysters, Snappers … and Tagging

It’s hard to imagine the joy I felt this morning catching the bus to work and finally seeing someone else actually using a Snapper Card. 

I had been quietly trying to convince myself that the seemingly slow uptake of this local version of London’s Oyster card was due to unspent currency of 10-ride bus tickets - but alas there always seemed to be too much hard cash being exchanged between driver and passenger to validate this one. But at least we haven’t (yet) got the problems that the Oyster has, where the encrypted security algorithm technology has just been cracked, and the cards can now be hacked: and London’s new Mayor has pulled the plug on the current system.

However: no reason to be smug. Wellington has not been the fastest in New Zealand to issue such a system.  Dunedin’s Go-card (offering a 10% discount) has been out since the end of last year, likewise with Christchurch’s Metrocard, and Auckland has its Go-rider, all three of which, it seems, can be loaded with $ by the bus driver, unlike our Snapper, which it seems requires visiting

…

Civic News

I’ve just found out that Wellington Civic Trust is once again holding its Awards this year, and nominations are open once more: click here. Last held in 2005, perhaps there hasn’t been enough exciting public work for the Trust to have had Awards for the last couple of years - however, surely there are enough to give awards by now. Last time, there was a simple division between the awards, with two: the Civic and Corporate Award, and the Community and Volunteer Award. The former was won by the fantastic Oriental Bay enhancements (such as the Changing Rooms, Walkway, Beach, and Mural), while the later was won by Carl Gifford with his (to me) excresence of old boulders and scrap iron in Happy Valley. Awards will be made on 18 September: this year the categories are much wider, with categories for best Building, Heritage, Environmental, Street Art, and Public Space.

Some curious categories there perhaps - there is a separate nomination for best Sculpture, with a fine selection of nominations of Wellington’s incredible sculptural record in recent years. So: Street Art then: do they really mean graffitti? Wildest Tag? Best Wildstyle? Fanciest Paste-Up? I would have

…

Construction methodologies

There are still many good signs of a healthy construction industry in Wellington, with a number of apartment projects underway. Two of these under construction at present are interesting as they show such different methods of construction. 

One of them, the Piermont apartments, by Stratum Management (Architecture +), took a while to get out of the ground due to basements almost below the water level, and the discovery of the remains of a century old railway stop: the Te Aro station of one of Wellington’s first railways. Massive amounts of below ground work were necessary, necessitating a large hole in the ground for Piermont and its neighbour Monument, and the casting of a thick water tight slab. Above ground however the construction is proving much speedier going, with an interesting method of construction: concrete inner shear walls and then a relatively lightweight lattice of thin steel columns to secure the outer perimeter and support the composite steel/concrete floors. Scaffold cloth is making it difficult to get good views through, but one thing is clear: the zigzag outer edge of the project will be a striking effect on the facade. Rather than

…

Te Karo Park

Following fast on the footsteps of the previous post on Courtenay Park, which some are labeling as ‘grim’, I’d like to put forward another contender for the title of ‘grim urban park’: yes, that of the SLOAP that is the ‘park’ of the Bypass. I’m not sure that Transit, the designers of mighty roading projects, have really got the hang of designing places for people yet. Seen here, on the edge of the aptly homonymous Karo Park, is an effort at doing some landscaping, with carefully placed traffic, facing into the bypass. 

Far be it for me to deride the abilities of other landscape designers, but I have a feeling that these seats are not going to get much use. Has anyone ever been seen using it? The saddest thing is: the one on the other side of the crossing is even worse. It made me so depressed that I couldn’t even bear to take its picture. At least this has a small shrubbery behind it.

It’s a firm argument that landscape design should be left up to landscape architects, and not tackled by roading engineers. So here is the latest park designed by (arguably)

…

Courtenay Park update

The simple beauty of rusting steel keeps getting better at Courtenay Park. These pictures speak without words:

When the sun is out, the new park gets quite popular, especially on a sunny lunchtime. 

Resource Management Act: Discuss

So National has pledged to reform the RMA within its first 100 days of office, should it get elected. Some people are getting very excited about that. ACT seems to think this may mean less restrictions on suburban land for housing, and let ‘good’ projects start and finish earlier. National seems to think that key ‘infrastructure’ projects will get a green light with less soul-searching. Labour seems to think that the RMA is just fine as it is, and has no need to change. 

If you were elected tomorrow, what would you change in the RMA in your first 100 days in office?  

Banalitecture

I’ve just spotted this blank wall being constructed beside the main route into the city from the airport. Facing north, providing a beautiful backdrop for shadow play of pohutukawa, as well as a future venue for no doubt countless mindless scribblings, is a blank wall. Courtesy of the ArcHaus architectural team.

Is this really what we want to be seen from the main road? Is a blank wall the best we can do for a frontage onto the beautiful waters of Evans Bay? Or should we be striving for better for our city? Is there going to be some great and beautiful structure on top, or have we already had the masterstroke on this work of architecture already?