Down here on Holland St, construction is definitely nothing new. Of late we’ve seen the Century City development starting to shape up, as well as the smaller additions of the oh-so-contemporary product spec office and the always-vibrant fuel expresso HQ. I had assumed that the construction site present on the first floor of the ‘zebra hostel’ was just simple renovation or the like; but the additon of an interesting catipillar-like lighting…
Fish
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Maximus
1 Min Read
Following on from the previous post, where we had observed how good Wellington can get on a nice day (not so good today, unfortunately), there were a few photos left over that we just had to use. There seems to be a few simple principles at work here for successful public space design in general, but throughout the waterfront especially. Always face your seating to…
Maximus
1 Min Read
They say it, and you can’t. Here’s proof. Waitangi Park, multiple award winning and hugely popular outdoor space, for all Wellingtonians. What was all the fuss about then, eh? We love it. The new waterfront promenade outside the old Herd St Post Office. Most ridiculously priced fish and chips in town, but hey, great spot for people watching. Shed 5 dining by the waters edge, nary…
Maximus
1 Min Read
The Eye of the Fish can see many stories, read many texts, and understand many things: but one language that fish don’t speak is Wildstyle. Graffiti – writing or drawings scribbled, scratched or sprayed illicitly on a wall or other surface in a public place. While we hope to write more on the burgeoning graffiti art scene in Wellington (which can be argued as a good…
Maximus
2 Min Read
It has been announced by the Wellington City Council, that following on from the demise of the proposal for a Hilton Hotel, there will be an ideas competition for the end of the Outer T on Queens Wharf: currently home to an old tin shed, as I’m sure you all know. The Hilton-to-be, as you will recall, was vanquished by the continued badgering of the combined…
Maximus
1 Min Read
Wellington has long had an ambivalent attitude to alternative means of transport unloved in other cities – we still have trolley buses (long absent from Auckland or Christchurch), we have a cable car (NZ’s and one of the world’s few commuter vertical transporters), and the cops here seem to turn a blind eye to youths driving scooters, sidewinders or skateboards. In most major cities of the…
Maximus
3 Min Read
In the line of an old Abba song, The Winner takes it All, and so it was in the 2008 Wellington Civic Trust awards last night. A friendly Fish-monger sends in this report from the ceremony in Te Papa: The evening started off promptly, no time for drinkies (or Studio Pacific – who missed out on the news they had won the first prize of the…
Maximus
1 Min Read
It has been said that if you want a job done right, then do it yourself. The government seems to have taken this to heart at present, by announcing that a competition for an affordable home has been launched: one possible sub-text being that as they have no way of making housing affordable, perhaps you’d like to design yourself one. Its not to be sneezed at…
Maximus
3 Min Read
After a lengthy (some might say excruciating) out-pouring about her experience of the ridiculous difficulties of building (home renovations and building consents), Joanne Black has recently decide to public pronounce on two more fascinating aspects of the architectural world. Firstly, that the building process is too easy for other people (yes the old “Not-in-my-backyard-especially-when-it’s-Thorndon” syndrome), and secondly, the right for architects to describe their projects using…
Maximus
3 Min Read
In the heart of Wellington’s old Chinatown, namely the narrow low-scale neighbourhood of Haining St, there is one of the few trees that are growing in Te Aro, nestling happily in the lee of an also fairly non-descript warehouse building. Until fairly recently the site was the home of a film unit, a student flat, and parking for assorted businesses, until it was sold and resold…