Athfield Architects have scooped the waterfront prize-pool, with a clean sweep win of all the sites covered in the Kumutoto North competition. Well done indeed to Ath and his merry band of cliffside dwellers. Wellington Waterfront also deservers kudos for having running a competition in the first place, and for sneaking out the press release a mere 5 months after the competition was held. We’re not…
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At the far end of the waterfront promenade from the recently opened oHtel, lies the newest addition to the waterfront: the BNZ ‘groundscraper’. It’s a big building that must treat its bulk carefully, but fortunately what is emerging from the scaffolding seems much more interesting than what the first renders gave it credit for. The architects have clearly delved deep into their bag of tricks to…
Something of a minor incident was caused recently, when acclaimed English author Duncan Fallowell brazenly attacked many aspects of New Zealand culture in his new travel book. Going As Far As I Can is the result of Duncan’s 3 month sojourn to Aotearoa, a trip that was evidently not very agreeable. “I’m in a state of shock. Where to begin? . . . Wellington has been…
Tory Street, named after a settler ship bringing population to Poneke, has for many years been a skinny urban backwater. The road is too narrow to work as a fast route for four-wheeled commuters, but this results in a nice walkable street, certainly less windy than Taranaki. It is populated by small, quirky businesses set in small, quirky buildings: the Mall drycleaners, the Hawthorn Lounge, the Tory Urban Retreat and Moore Wilson‘s. Big businesses and big buildings are largely unknown, the exception being Telecom’s stumpy tower blocks near Courtenay Place.
However change is in the air – as well as a perplexing plethora of fly away roofs.
The Wellington urban class really wants light rail. And why wouldn’t they? Light rail is sexy transit…cruise smoothly, comfortably, and quickly to the local tiki bar; no more lurching starts and stops, no more endless waits behind four other buses boarding at the stop on Willis Street, no more fighting with cars for road space. And so there seems to be a grumbling undercurrent regarding the…
It has been confirmed that Meridian Energy plans to build a new wind farm in the Ohariu Valley, with 31 turbines across 4000 hectares. The proposed site is owned by 5 farmers, who banded together in 2002 to negotiate proposals with various energy companies. Talks had stalled over price issues in 2003, but recently an agreement has been reached.
Having met with the community last night, it is unclear whether the project will face significant opposition from the local residents. Unlike the Makara West Wind project – which is now under way after 2 years of opposition – it looks like they are aiming to take more of a sympathetic approach to local consultation.
At 111 meters high, the turbines certainly aren’t diminutive. Hopefully some form of viewshed analysis will be completed soon; Im uncertain on what impact they would have on views from the greater Wellington region. Note: the diagram to the right assumes the height does not take into account the rotor radius at a peak.
Wellington’s buildings continue to surprise and delight me, relative newcomer as I am to this small, perfectly-formed city. It’s not a place that you could say has great traditions of anything in particular – it has demolished most, but not all of its Victorian heritage, has a fine collection of post-modern eighties buildings that have firmly gone out of style, with the remaining collection being eclectic…
We’re aiming to keep replacing our header image on a regular basis, using it as an opportunity to feature local photographers and showcase our city in a fresh light. There’s no set criteria for the image’s subject; we’re open to pretty much anything interesting that contains ample amounts of Wellington. If you had an image in mind that you think would make for a great header,…
tena koutou katoa, welcome to Eye of the Fish. We are a fledgling blog that was created to continue the legacy of Tom Beard’s superb WellUrban. Our aim is to further discourse on Wellington’s urban environment, as well to as report on the other aspects of life in the capital. Tom has set certainly high standards for us – but hopefully we will be able to…