Perhaps its just as well that the new building is going to cover it up then?

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Mobsta: the building “out the back” of St Mary’s Church is Boulcott Village, and it’s most certainly an Archaus job.

On Skyscrapercity.com, WellUrban posted that the proposed “Serepisos Tower” is to be designed by a ‘respected corporate architect’. (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showpost.php?p=14016626&postcount=86)

According to a Skyscrapercity post by WellUrban, the proposed ‘Serepisos Tower’ on Lambton Quay is to be designed by a ‘respected corporate architect’.

thanks for your reply.
the Boulcott St development I was thinking of was the one “out the back” of St Marys, with the multi coloured aluminium joinery. Not very nice behind the grandeur of St Marys.

I agree, the other development did seem like the work of Perry Architects. I cannot confirm, but it did seem like their style, (speaking of Perry Architects – they teamed up with Serepisos to give us the Prudential Development. I understand that Perry were dropped / left halfway through which is why we are left with a pretty ordinary box on top – although I do like the little jewellers that fills the interstitial space between the Prudential and its neighbour…..)

Yeah, Terry did have a thing for Roger Walker for a while.
Not my taste. AT ALL.
Walker and Athfield were the enfant terribles of the Wellington Architecture scene in the 80′s – fortunately for us Athfield grew up and is producing work of delight and enriching our urban lives… unfortunately Roger (with all his skills) never quite grew up and now we have to live with his urban follies.

Terry’s in-house design team is lead by Stephen White.
He started Design Zoo way-back-when (ugly rumours about Steve and the Design Zoo at the Dowse recently – not pretty).
He worked at Athfield’s for a while, then formed ‘Design Team’ (I think – on Vivian St – needs confirmation) with David Pawson, then went back to uni to finish his Arch degree, went overseas for a while, has come back, tried to revive Design Zoo (unsuccessfully), and now works for Terry.
He is not a registered architect.

I am happy to be corrected on any of the above.

Re the link up with Serepisos, and yes, i’m glad that hasn’t happened – but perhaps its more that Terry S fancies his architecture wild and free, as does his favourite architect Roger Walker. There is something about the mad, flyaway roofs, the crazy angles of walls, carefree placement of windows and exuberant splashings of colour that very few architects can imitate – Walker is one of a kind. His early work was wonderfully expressive, as evidenced by the many Walker houses dotted around the Wellington region, although some may argue his exuberant natural talent hasn’t translated so well to the apartment market.

However, the rumour mill seems to be saying that Walker and Serepisos have parted company for future projects, and that Terry is going to do all his future projects with his ‘in-house team’. We’re not too sure who that might be – probably its not an architect, but a ‘designer’ of some sort, or possibly just Terry’s hair stylist. Again, any confirmation – greatly received.

Well that’s alright then !

The mixing of materials seems a bit odd. While the apartment main tower bit has a reasonably limited palette, the other portions seem to add a bit to many new colours/textures. This isnt necessarily a bad thing, but it would help to have one or two elements that keep the whole thing a little cohesive. These things are hard to tell in renders though.

Heritage integration seems decent – again, I would have liked a more limited pallet of materials to keep them a little more distinct. It seems they are a caught a bit inbetween wrapping/enclosing the building, continuing/extending it and projecting out from it. In doing all 3 it appears less considered than it could be.

Anyway, thats just my 2cents. I wasnt a huge fan of the curvy concept, this looks like it could turn out well.

There is a reason that they are the most prolific architects around – they do things really quickly with little thought to aesthetics or resolution of the planning. There is no real craft with these guys…. (and cheap fees certainly help also….)

Actually Archaus do seem to have raised their game recently (although the development behind St Marys (?) on Boulcott Street is doing everything to prove me wrong…..)
The Audi / Porsche showroom was quite good, and yes Herd Street looks OK also (although there is a story behind that with Archaus kicked off the project, replaced by Warren and Mahoney, who were then kicked off and replaced by…. Archaus!)
Nice.

I spoke to a developer a number of months ago who said that he has been offered the above site 3 times in the last 3-4 years.
He could never make it stack up financially, no matter how he worked or massaged the numbers.
It seems that the current developers have made it work by including the (nondescript) building next door and possibly also the carpark on the other side of that, and going really, really high….