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…
Fish
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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…
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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…
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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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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…
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Amidst all this talk of Hubbard, Buzzard, Toil and Gloom, it’s nice to hear something positive once in a while. Word has it that at a NZIA Urban Design forum this week, the audience was mighty impressed by the new Aussie boss of the Urban Design Group in Wellington, Jan McCredie. She’s made a few public talks in her time here in Wellington this year, and…
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With a resounding snap of latex rubber catsuit on naked flesh, we take a slightly different direction today. There’s been enough talk of streets and roads and local body politics for now – time to look at another urban phenomenon. It is one of the more difficult (and eye-opening) subjects for us to find images for that are even mildly relevant and yet still safe for…
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Johnsonville Neglected by Council. “Wellington City Council has failed and neglected Johnsonville for a long time – that’s obvious. Projects proposed to be started, finished and funded have not been. Last night Council (by a majority of one) made that worse in an election panic ad hoc move by two councillors which sees no real commitment to comprehensive integrated urban design or to expenditure or programming…
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“There’s been a lot of angst from some people in Johnsonville about Plan Changes 72 and 73. Let’s look at the big picture first. Wellington City’s population is growing, relatively fast in historical terms. The Council is not, repeat not, promoting population growth. I personally believe that all countries should have a population strategy (ie have half a clue where it’s going) because population affects everything,…
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There’s some big news from the Council this week, as they debate whether or not to adopt District Plan Change 72 and 73. Councillors will vote on this on Wednesday, in what is probably going to be a massive meeting. More on DPC 72 and 73 later – but first: Johnsonville. Scoop Wellington (aka Lindsay Shelton) has been hosting a discussion about Johnsonville which seems to…