It’s Christmas once again, and we’re on a break. Let’s face it, no one reads a website when it is sunny outside, and no one much is reading this blog any more anyway, so despite the newsy things we could write about, like the architect being announced for the new Chinese Embassy at the Basin Reserve, or the debate over new housing proposed for Shelly Bay…
Leviathan
331 Articles
Levi has recently taken on some blogging duties following the disappearance of Maximus. Reluctantly.
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Leviathan
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It’s not just Bunny Walters and ZsaZsa Gabor that have gone to meet their maker in the last few days – it is the building at 61 Molesworth St that is quickly shuffling off this mortal coil. They say that modern buildings have a 50 year life span – Zsa Zsa got to 99, Bunny got to 63 – but ICI only just passed 50. Almost…
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Leviathan
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Down at the old Harbour Board building this week for the launch of the Wellington City Council Heritage Index (an excellent resource, long overdue, and very welcome), we were in the Boardroom of the old Harbour Board, with ancient faces staring down at us disapprovingly. There we were, mostly women, and on the walls, old, white, bearded, frowning men looked down, as we talked about heritage….
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Leviathan
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This. We need this for Wellington. Thanks to the wonderful TransportBlog in Auckland for bring that to my attention. We need a dedicated action group for Wellington to reclaim our city from the grip of the motorcar. The WCC, the GWRC, and the NZTA started off with “Get Welly Moving” but they appear to have gone into hibernation. No idea what has happened from their first…
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Leviathan
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Following last week’s large earthquake in Kaikoura (now uprated to 7.8, which is a sizeable monster), a number of buildings in Wellington have been cordoned off, and so far, three buildings have been slated for demolition. They are: the former ICI House (designed by Stephenson & Turner, constructed 1962-65) in 61 Molesworth St. the Statistics building (designed by Jasmax, constructed 2005) at Centreport. the Car Park…
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Following on from the previous post singing the praises of the structural engineers inspecting our buildings in the heart of the capital, this post is almost the opposite: don’t let anyone “Red Zone” our city. I’m not sure who is even promoting the idea, but it is not one to be taken lightly. Yes, we had an earthquake recently, and around a thousand aftershocks. Yes, we…
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Engineers sometimes get a bad press, but I think it is worth singing their praises today. While we have all been huddled inside by the fire (or, if you don’t have a fire, then huddled by the cat), our Structural Engineering buddies have been slogging it out, going round town, inspecting buildings. Late at night, possibly all night long, down darkened corridors with potentially falling masonry,…
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Leviathan
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Once again we have an earthquake, and once again, our city gets off lightly. Despite all the hoohaa and sirens and tsunami warnings etc, and apart from the tragic loss of a couple of people in the South Island, Wellington has brushed off the quakes with a shrug. And that is exactly what we should be able to do, every time it happens. The Geonet warning…
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Leviathan
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Wonderful to hear that last night Roger Walker received the NZIA Gold Medal for 2016 – well deserved and long overdue. There was quite a nice wee film screened about Roger and his work / life, featuring of course some suitably humorous tales about cars, women, his connection with Ath, and above all, architecture. Sadly, Ath has gone, but gloriously, we still have Roger, looking exactly…
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Leviathan
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A reminder, of far-off wars, and very nearly announced competitions. The Pukeahu National War Memorial Park is announcing the winners of the competition for a memorial to the French war dead, on 11 November. The entries are all on display up at the old Dominion Museum, just at the start of Peter Jackson’s WWII exhibition (go see: it is very good), but if you can’t get…