Maximus
2 Min Read

Is it any coincidence that Fashion Week is held in Auckland at precisely the same time that World of Wearable Arts is held in Wellington? Its a pity really, cos then you really can’t get to see both, but then again, what is the difference? One is a fantasy world of openably unwearable pieces of imaginative interpretations of the latest fads, and the other is… well,…

Maximus
3 Min Read

Following on, in a timely sort of manner, and because the Wellington wind has gone away and left us with some perfect walking / swimming / photo-taking weather, I thought it would be nice to have a look at the roof of the new Indoor Sports Stadium in Wellington. Most of you will have been sweeping past in your fast little cars, getting a sneaky sideways…

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Maximus
2 Min Read

It is lovely to hear and to see that the current WCC roads department has undertaken to supply Wellington with a new Fountain. Trialled briefly last night, its magnificent spout put a sparkle in the Fish’s eye, a flick in my tail. I love a good soaking. Digging the preparatory hole in Manners Mall on Tuesday afternoon, it seems that a digger unearthed the gusher in…

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Maximus
2 Min Read

So: 400-600 tonnes of wet snow, and the roof of “Stadium Southland” collapses. Te Wai Pounamou is certainly taking a hammering this month. Like you, like most Engineers and Architects are probably thinking: why was it that the roof collapsed, and how we can’t keep relying on people being out of the room or off the street to keep our disaster death toll down. I mean,…

Maximus
5 Min Read

If, like me, you live in Welllington city, you will have just received your voting papers. Now, call me dumb if you want to, but it is all a little confusing. We’ve got 4 different elections to vote in, of which 3 use the same method, and 1 uses a different method. That’s all do-able – although I’m not sure that everyone will remember to change…

Maximus
3 Min Read

Getting away from all the excitement and kerfuffle of the Christchurch earthquake for a while, and focusing our fish-eyed gaze a little closer to home, the Wellington City Council is proceeding at pace with the modernisation of their social housing stock. We reported just over a year ago on the plans and aspirations for some of those schemes – in this post here – where we…

Maximus
4 Min Read

It is good to see that Christchurch has kicked off the post-quake blues and is fighting back. The shops have reopened, the schools will be back on Monday, the water is fit to drink once more, and even the CheeseMongers shop looks like it might be saved. Once they’ve got their city scrubbed up and the trains working again, perhaps its time to take a scenic…

Maximus
3 Min Read

If you’ve been trying to get hold of your Structural Engineer this week in Wellington, you’ll probably have noticed they’re not returning calls. There’s urgent work in Christchurch, and it seems that the whole lot of them have decamped for the week to go down and inspect buildings. Even the Council has sent Building Inspectors and Consent processing officials south to help. I’m not sure that…

Maximus
1 Min Read

Well that was a close one. 7.4 in Christchurch – and loads of damage as only 10km deep. I was awake at the time (Fish never sleep) and thought it was close to Wellington – it went on for a long time. We’re pretty lucky up here – we’re waaaaay overdue, and would we also be having facades fall into the street? How many of those…

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Maximus
3 Min Read

I’ve been reading a book lately – not such an unusual occurrence, for those that know me – and I think I may have the only copy in the country (only cos I bought the last one on the shelf in a foreign country). So I thought I would share it with you, seeing as it is all about planning out the city. It is called…