At some stage, reality is going to have to sink in, to whoever runs these signs around the city: Reading Car Park is Gone Baby GONE, the love has gone away. Unloved, unmourned, uncaring passing, the car park that no one wanted, built by profit chasers for a tower that never came, the building that split its thigh bones, allegedly. I saw no cracks. watched no…
There’s a new building in town, going up on the waterfront, and I’m sure you’ve all seen it by now. The 20 Customhouse Quay project (code named XXCQ) is already proving to be the most interesting building in Wellington, and technologically, perhaps the most advanced structural solution for a high rise in the whole country. It certainly has me intrigued. The project is definitely visually very…
So – the worst kept secret in Wellington is out at last – Defence Force’s HQ, Freyberg House, is to be demolished. It’s perhaps no great surprise to those in the industry, who have heard the rumours before now, but it is sure to be a bit of a shock to many Wellingtonians. There is, of course, another building that will probably also have to come…
WELLINGTON STREETS ON THE LIST Adelaide Rd, Berhampore/Mt Cook/Newtown Bond St, Wellington Central Courtenay Pl, Te Aro Coutts St, Kilbirnie Cuba St, Te Aro Dixon St, Te Aro Dundas St, Seatoun Egmont St, Te Aro Eva St, Te Aro Ganges Rd, Khandallah Ghuznee St, Te Aro Hobart St, Miramar Holland St, Te Aro Hutt Rd, Pipitea Kilbirnie Cres, Kilbirnie Lambton Quay, Wellington Central Manners St, Te…
Good news today – at least I think its good news. WCC is to build 750 more houses, in order to help relieve the incredibly tight housing market we have here. It’s got ALL the buzz words we want to hear: New, Affordable, Social, Warm, Dry, Housing, funded from a ring-fenced fund which won’t cost anything to the ratepayer. Seriously: what more could you want? It’s…
It’s back ! I thought it had gone away for good. But yesterday, and today… just wonderful summer daze. What a pity we are all back inside. This guy, on the other hand, knows how to enjoy summer. Respect! The classy thing here, of course, is the diving platform. When faced with people diving into the wharf cutout, WCC at first thought about making it illegal,…
A venture up to Auckland to see the sights – and there as this one sight that is on a reasonably nice site. It’s a state house Jim, but not as we know it. Nat Cheshire has written about it already, in his usually pained way, over here (God, he’s tedious – what a prat), but I was there early – an hour or two is…
Seeing as we seem to be at a bit of a turning point in history (far easier to see in hindsight than at the time, but either way : there’s some pretty weird things happening on the political front world wide at present), then I thought I would have a look at where we stand. We’ve had a World War or two, a Gulf War or…
Slum. It’s a dirty word round here, isn’t it? Would you like it better if I called it something else? Barrio? Favela? Informal settlement? One thing is for sure: that the word slum gets bandied around a lot when well-meaning people decry proposed projects for housing poor people en masse, and yet these aren’t really slums at all. We haven’t got anything close to approaching what…
M.A.M.O.N. – Latinos VS. Donald Trump / Ale Damiani from Taxi Films on Vimeo. A lovely little highly topical film… And this: An engineer explains why the wall won’t work…. “No. Donald Trump is not a builder. Donald Trump could not build a doghouse. Donald Trump is a developer who pays what he would call “very, very smart people†to build things on his behalf. His…