After the last few weeks of news in NZ, we can at last get back to discussing the really important things in life, like where we might put a light rail system through Central Wellington, what we should do with parking for 40 cars in Lower Cuba St, and whether a car can indeed travel at a slow 5kph indeed, and how you would tell if…
Philip
2 Min Read
If you have read the Dominion Post article on Manners, you will know that the plans to un-mall Manners Mall have just been passed. If you have read the Dominion Post article, you will also not know the full story. Whether due to the breaking nature of the announcement, or somewhat slanted journalistic intent, the dom doesn’t make mention of the news that the lower end…
Maximus
4 Min Read
Today is a big day for architecture in Wellington. No, not because some architect has been given a gong in the Queen’s Birthday honours list – that hardly ever happens in NZ – we only award people who run, jump, or otherwise sweat their way into awards. I find that curious – that the people who have the biggest effect on the physical world around us,…
Maximus
1 Min Read
From our watery vantage point out in the harbour, we Fish survey the shore with interest. The other day (when the sun was out: remember what the sun looks like?) we spied something that we thought was odd. This first building is for some nameless private company, with a big blobby amoeba like logo splashed on the end facade. I think that once upon a time…
Maximus
5 Min Read
It’s all go down on the waterfront this week: the news keeps flying thick and fast, and we just can’t keep up with the flow! But we’ll try: here’s a catch-up. First there was the news that the Wharves were falling down – with DomPost giving that story more face time than the war against the Tamils – and a doleful looking Mr Pike lost in…
Maximus
4 Min Read
We here at the Fish have been following the fate of Auckland’s motorway obsession with interest. It seems that NZTA (the former Transit) and their Infrastructure Minister Stephen Joyce, are more than a little bit cautious when it comes to building things in tunnels. As many of our commenters here have noted, projected costs of $540 million per kilometre of tunnels are more than a little…
Maximus
3 Min Read
There’s a small town some hour or so north of Wellington, by commercial jet, called Auckland. Small town, big suburbs, not much of a city. Normally they don’t make it onto the Eye of the Fish web cam, but then again, they have 2 harbours whereas we just have one, and that makes my tiny flippers quiver. The news for Auckland today means I feel for…
Maximus
3 Min Read
Do we have too much bureaucracy in NZ, or not enough? Is it too easy to get a building designed and built in our shiny happy little country, or is it really the solid chore and back-breaking task that the Nats would have you believe? While our building standards in NZ may be set at a fairly low point, asking only that we barely scrape past…
Maximus
4 Min Read
Indeed, you’re all too fast to catch me out – it shows we have some pretty sharp eyes here in the capital at picking out window details. OK, it wasn’t that hard a competition, and it is a pretty big building that we’ve all been watching with eagle eyes, and despite what I said before, its not really something that can be ignored. Yes, the building…
Maximus
1 Min Read
This building is just too overpowering for words. So pictures will have to do instead. Can you guess what it is? The cladding is very simple, to the point of being very plain. There’s nothing better than a smooth even grey. A warm soft grey, with a hint of white. Is frit the new phat? Is grey the new black?