Seeing as old gorgeous George has just got hitched in La Serenissima, I thought I might pop along too. A few pictures here of a previous visit, where I was documenting the lesser, unseen side of Venice. We all know what the media like to portray: the beauty of it all. But there is another side. Hideous amounts of tourists is the biggest downside. But then…
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Maximus
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Meh. Bygones. I’m over it. What Wellington needs now, and seems very good at providing it, is a fresh start on an old street corner, and the corner of Abel Tasman and Cuba Street seems just the right place to do that. Wandering around this slightly forsaken part of town the other night, I hadn’t really realized just how funky and vibrant a mere street corner…
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Maximus
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It may be just another case of the Dom Post getting its pics wrong, or it may be an embarrassing case of someone saying too much too soon, but the picture in Stuff today accompanying the story about NZTA’s plan to contest the Flyover decision, shows a bombshell. In the image, reproduced larger here for you, it is quite clear that two flyovers are planned, floating…
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Maximus
5 Min Read
It was a cold, wet day in September, and the clocks were striking thirteen. A freezing, damp front spread through the country, blanketing the land with wave after wave of wind-chilled moisture, soaking into the ground where soil remained uncovered by asphalt. It soaked too into the clothing of those that ventured out, wool-blends steaming gently when they reached the comfort of indoors again. The rain…
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Maximus
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Is anyone actually surprised to hear (via Snowden, Greenwald, Dotcom et al) that NZ has its metadata spied on by the USA? I’m certainly not. The US relishes it’s position as a superpower, and it didn’t get to be a superpower by handing out cupcakes. It knows what is happening in the world because it listens carefully to what is happening on the airwaves. It spies…
Maximus
5 Min Read
There’s an election coming up, and while lots of people are talking about Housing, hardly anyone is talking about architecture, or the built environment. The trickle-down economics of a $5 tax cut per week in 3 years time seem so banal to me that they are being rightly ignored by the media. Instead, we are being treated to a mindless interplay of “who has the best…
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Maximus
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OK – so today we have a look at the remaining sections of the Special Housing Accord areas, based in and around the central part of Wellington. There are, it appears, three remaining areas : the first, and biggest of these, is Te Aro. Te Aro is, to be perfectly honest, the growing residential heart of Wellington. Once – not so long ago actually – it…
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Maximus
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As noted yesterday, there is also to be a SHA for Kilbirnie. Here it is: Now, can anybody tell me why that is the shape it is? Aren’t those the Council flats (top right)? And what is with the big area near the bus barns at the bottom? I’m really at a loss as to why these shapes have been chosen. Here is another area: further…
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Maximus
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We have an Accord. No, not one of those big Hondas, that glide smoothly along the tarmac with the stealth of a ninja, but we – the Royal We – Wellington) have a Housing Accord, signed between the Government and the Council. They’re promising to play nicely together in the sandpit – Mayor Wade Brown will still be here after the election, and I’m assuming that…
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Maximus
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The Governor-General, the PM and some other minor celebs had a wee jaunt through the new Arras tunnel the other day, only to discover a bunch of strange growths on the walls. Big, red, and very discular. Looks quite nice though… A friend of a friend sent through these photos later, which shows things off quite nicely. Taking the theme of Rememberance into a tunnel is…
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