In summer, in Barcelona people head to the waterfront to sunbathe, and yes to get away from the oppressiveness of the boxed in city. Barcelona is an oppressive, closed in city with few parks. Wellington is not.

In winter the waterfront is much, much quieter and in my opinion much of it is not so successful, especially the hulking civic spaces such as Parc Del Forum. It’s empty 95 percent of the time.

What does work – and this is where a leaf can be taken out of BCN’s book in my opinion — is the row of outdoor restaurants along the beach at Marina Village. These are fantastic, independently run, and they attract people to the water to dine, and drink and meet friends. I think WGTN’s waterfront would do well if it could get people eating on the waterfront like this (behind big sheets of glass in winter of course, but in summer al fresco style.)

It seems to me that a start point is to get away from thinking that we need to have developers putting up places to live, work and stay as a means of financing the recreational enjoyment of the waterfront. This type of investment is a brutal tool as in the end, medium or high rise accommodation and ‘active’ recreational usage become pretty much mutually exclusive. In time, as the population increases and attitudes to city living change, most of the current commercial space along the quays will probably convert to residential use anyway, especially if harbour views are retained.

A large part of the linking of a city and the waterfront is psychological and influenced by view. Sort of – if you can see the destination, you are more likely to feel attached and get there. An issue here is that increasingly as one passes from Aotea Quay to Oriental Bay there is less evidence of a working wharf, recreational areas and a harbour. Harking back to Barcelona for a moment, they have up to eight lanes of traffic separation (some partially undergrounded) but the city and the waterfront still somehow feel connected. I think this is because of the views (not just viewshafts) of the waterfront. These views are also encouraged by the siting of parks on the city side. Sort of like larger well developed and maintained Illot’s Parks with harbour views. In retrospect, it would have been great if the old Post Office and Hope Gibbon’s sites had been used by earlier councils for landscaped parks and, of course, Queen’s Wharf had been built down instead of up. If only creative long term planning had been done 50+ years ahead, as we need to do now. Part of the thinking should involve a future that makes fewer concessions to private transport and could include underground or light rail transport that has linkages between the city and the harbour. Obviously the cost will be high but dreams don’t have to be materialised immediately – there is a city of the future to plan for.

ps: I prefer to stroll instead of sit and I have been known to stop in for a drink and weekend brunch.

You are correct about the scale of the city and of the open areas of Barcelona.
They have certainly done them well. I think your analysis of this is spot on.

You are also correct that the businesses and cafes exist not because they are “destinations” but because they are… there.
They exist due to the density of Barcelona.

I too like the buffer that Frank Kitts and Te Papa and the like create for the harbours edge. Although I would like a greater interaction between the city and the harbours edge.
This is why I think that the “greening of the quays” is a step towards bringing the city and the edge closer together.
Unfortunately we have a six lane highway separating them. Jan Gehl proposed reducing this to 4 lanes (or less), but due to the impracticality of this it meant taking other measures. The “greening of the quays” was the first step in this process.

I think that we both agree that the harbour’s edge should be a fantastic place to go and be and just hang out. Although you may want to go and sit and look and I may want to go and sit and eat and drink… We both think it should be humanist in scale and for the people. We just have different views on how to get there.

Focusing solely on the waterfront, the redesign was managed in such a way that when there, one can be oblivious of the necessarily tall apartment buildings when at the bottom of La Ramblas, around Port Vell and Barcelonetta, or as one progresses up the coast. I have no particular expertise, but it seems to me this has been achieved in a number of ways which started, as I understand, by reclaiming a total of four hectares. The main roads, which like elsewhere in Barcelona seem to have their lights phased to advantage pedestrians, provide separation in some parts. Elsewhere, the separation is achieved with wide pavements, promenades, and single story ground floor protrusions with expansive areas between their outer edges and the curbs. Another impressive touch is the large restaurants and bars that sit under the road and wide pavement (Playa Passieg Martin) with outdoor areas on the beach with a wide promenade for passing wanderers. There are changes of inclines, paving changes, grassed areas and landscaped planting thrown into the mix so that the overall psychological effect is of open spaces and water without the impression of buildings taking away the human scale. I doubt if climate is necessarily an ingredient (wind excepted) as Jan Gehl’s concepts work in Scandinavia and Barcelona gets down to eight degrees in winter.

You said (Mobsta),”The area that he (your friend) lives is filled with cafe’s and bars and small businesses that add to the vitality of the area.” I think you would probably agree that the same is true of most parts of Barcelona. It was particularly so of Gracia where I had the good fortune to live for over four months. I think the points here are that these businesses are not primarily there because of the waterfront and for most Barcelonans, they are not a prime attraction as some seem to suggest cafes and bars should/would be on the Wellington waterfront.

Yes, Wellington has done well with much of its waterfront. Te Papa despite its size is not dominant on its seaward side. Circa, the brewery, the Odlins Building, the rowing club building and the St John’s Ambulance buildings now take pride of place with the the environment that has been created around them and because of the buffer they create between the harbour and the city. Frank Kitts Park is a gem with a feel of separation from the commercial area. My concern is the prospect of tall buildings encroaching ever closer to the harbour. I also wonder what effect the narrowing of the spaces around the enlarged OPT will have but worst of all was the prospect of a Hilton Hotel between public space and the harbour on the Outer T despite the ground floor concession – like “top floor lookout deck – hah .” (?)

As the Mayor said, the sky didn’t fall down when the Meridian was built but an avalanche only takes one snowball to set it on its way.

I have a friend who lives in the Barceloneta. We stay with him whenever we go to Spain.
He lives on the waterfront in a 7 story apartment building, it is old and fading with peeled paint. Beautiful and full of character.
And that is the thing about that part of the city, it is old and photogenic and we look at it and say what a great place that would be to live and isn’t it fantastic that he lives on the waterfront and we can go up on the roof and drink coffee and look out over the harbour…

The building that he lives in is taller than the current OPT, the proposed OPT, and possibly the Meridian Building.
His building is not uncommon.
The area that he lives is filled with cafe’s and bars and small businesses that add to the vitality of the area.
People live, eat, work and play in these areas. It has the density to achieve this. (Barcelona has a staggering 15,000 people per square kilometre, compared to our 860…).

A lot of the waterfront area in Barclelona was completed by the National government in time for the 1992 Olympics. We, unfortunately, do not have the same luxury of an Olympic sized stimulus package, and so our work must be completed in small parts by the Council and larger parts by private developers.

Maximus makes a point when they state that there are also other interesting parts of Barcelona (Las Ramblas, the old quarter, the Sagrada Familia, Parc Guell, Montjuic Park, and Placa Catalunya amongst others.
Wellington is no different in that we have interesting bits as well, but obviously our good bits have a different character to a truly international city such as Barcelona.

Barcelona’s waterfront is also assisted by having 1.6 million people on their doorstep compared to our 190,000.
I think we are doing rather well with what we have completed already and what is proposed.

Another area that we differ from Barcelona is their love of good design. The architect is revered in Spain. In fact it is compulsory that an architect is involved in every building project. Compare that to our distrust of good design and how great architecture can contribute to the cityscape.

Comparing Wellington and Barcelona is a bit of a stretch. We have different cultures, different populations, different climate, and probably most telling of all – a different mindset when it comes to good design and architecture.

“I have a suspicion that there will be a stream of failed businesses once the novelty of the ‘new’ OPT building wears off. From my observations of the turnover of cafes, bars and other service provider establishments when living in Auckland, the 100 day honeymoon period applies to more than just politics….”

It seems to me that using over-the-top generalisations and suppositions isn’t helping your argument any…. it just comes across as bitter and twisted….

of course Waitangi Park is part of the waterfront.
Look at the District Plan. Look at the masterplan for the waterfront. Look at how the planted out graving dock touches the harbour. Look at how the park encompasses Herd Street.

To compare Waitangi Park to the Courtenay Precinct is drawing a rather large bow…

Barclona? years since i’ve been there – but I don’t remember the waterfront being the best part of the city. Las Ramblas, on the other hand, is great. Comfortable, wide, pedestrian street. From memory, the waterfront was cut off by a nasty waterfront road wasn’t it? Maybe it has changed. Not sure what your point is.

Jan Gehl? nice bloke, well respected, doing work all over the world. In Wellington he was paid as a consultant to come and advise and undertake a report. The report is very slowly, very quietly, being implemented.

Waitangi Park? The Herd St Post Office has always been there – I don’t think you can blame the council for that. At the time of its redevelopment there were a number of schemes that looked to move it away, turn it around, demolish it, etc, but in the end it was left where it is. It has a number of advantages: it shields the park to a small degree from wind, it creates a slightly more enclosed arena, creates a cool pool of shade in summer, and it helps define the harbour edge. It still has more disadvantages – shades the park in winter, makes the wind worse in certain conditions, is not really open to any degree to the public as it should be (top floor lookout deck – hah!) but regardless: it’s there.

And lastly: Waterfront Watch. If you’ve listened to them at public meetings, Pauline and Lindsay are quite open about their dislike of buildings on the waterfront. Its a perfectly valid concern (although one that I disagree with) : that Wellington has enough buildings, and that the waterfront should not be built on any more. They don’t seem to get the concept that people go to the waterfront because there are nice places to be and to sit while you are there. It is far more popular now than it was before Wellington Waterfront started its tweaking. But you’ll never convince Swann et al of that.

Anyway: time to move on. I must work on a new post! I wonder what on….