Congestion “free” – really? Is there such a thing? Can we reach that state? Should we aim to reach that state? Here’s an example, just in from London, which as we all know is the capital of a small country quite some distance north of here…. London famously introduced a congestion charge about 17 years ago – so, is London now “congestion free”? Ummm, reading that…

I’ve been a bit quiet lately, not because I have the Wuhan Flu (no – god forbid it comes here!), but because the weather has been gorgeous where I am, and I simply can’t be arsed to tap away on a computer inside while the sun blazes away outside. And besides, you guys have been quiet lately too. But this horrible flu thing – I can’t…

I’ve been a bit quiet lately but this is something that we have all been waiting for. Yes, it is the start of the election bribe season, or perhaps it is truly the best time in the world financial cycle to borrow money, but regardless, today Grant Robertson has announced a series of big infrastructure spending. Most of these announcements are to do with roading projects…

I’ve not done this before: I’m not a needy kind of Fish – but following on from the last post, where readers were proposing their hopes for the decade ahead, I thought that the Eye of the Fish should also do the same. So here goes. What have I got to say? Read on… Rapid Public Transport Needs to be sorted, NOW. This is the one…

So here’s to the 2020s: the years ahead. What do you want to happen? What do you think will happen? Once again, in a cheeky form of reverence, I’m going to use the Greater Auckland blog as a template for what we are doing here in Wellington – so the headlines all refer to AKL projects. Let’s see how we are doing by comparison. City Rail…

As we round out not only the year but also the decade, I’ve also decided to join the ranks of other end of decade reviews. What have we accomplished in Wellington and how are we doing overall? Following the lead of the Greater Auckland blog (former Transport Blog), I’ll divide this post into sections on our vast and glorious achievements. Local Government Amalgamation Following on from…

It’s Christmas time – it must be mid-summer as the pohutukawa are flowering, the storms are raging, and the norwester winds are blowing a (severe) gale. We need some good news and some bright and happy images of a successful architectural outcome. So, as a Christmas Special, here’s some pics of a partially finished Erskine development down in Island Bay. Although the initial pictures we saw…

As a public service announcement, can anyone answer this query? “Could someone find out whats happening with the ill-fated 111 Dixon Apartments? “Apparently they still cannot get consent, FENZ is not happy with the fire-warning system, “Council still not happy with the stell, (? – steel?) “buyers are attempting to run for the hills, “furniture has been moved in…..then moved out (bills not paid???). “Have the…

Released just in time for Christmas, a new building for Wellington has hit the news – a Newcrest development that will take star position on the Waterfront. Situated on the long fought for site where there is currently a petrol station (for many years the most successful Shell station in Wellington, more lately a Z station), the building will be tenanted by BNZ for at least…

Following on from the entertaining architecture of Queenstown, where the residential architecture is rigorously controlled and ruthlessly rectilinear, and the commercial architecture is uniformly confused and bizarrely ugly in most respects, I thought I would head to somewhere where the opposite is apparent. In Napier, by comparison, the commercial architecture of the town is uniquely individual: a combination of Art Deco, Spanish Mission, Streamline Moderne, and…