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Te Aro Park

Jun 24 2011
Love0

Making porridge pancakes: Te Aro Park

By Architectural History, Comment, Heritage, HISTORY, RANTING, urban design, Video of the Week

I haven’t been down to the container exhibition of WCC’s Wellington 2040 vision, but am looking forward to doing so soon. What I have seen is the recent post over onĀ EyeoftheFish, which gives us a sneak preview of a small part of the type of outcome that might be expected to emerge from that vision: in this case, a new green space where the Oaks building is currently sited. As the Fish reports, that site has been the subject of many suggestions for ‘improvement,’ some of which are captured in thisĀ thread. A particularly intriguing one was the suggestion of a ‘Flatiron’/wedge-shaped building on Te Aro Park, and a park where Oaks currently is – a swap of building for open space and vice versa.

Anyway, WCC’s artist’s impression for this specific site (in accordance with the 2040 vision), has been published by the Fish, which I have plagiarised (above) for this post (click on the image to see it larger over on EotF). Although WCC might well beĀ congratulatedĀ for a bold vision and a positive intervention in our urban fabric, at a detailed level, the featureless expanse of lawn probably leaves a lot to desire (and would present a heck of a maintenance issue, even worse that those that currently exist on the Te Aro Park part of the site). That aside, there are other, I think more interesting, issues here that seem always to be overlooked when discussion of what to do with Te Aro Park arises – in particular, issues of both urban and cultural heritage. Read More

May 19 2010
Love0

Manners Mall submission

By Comment

The Architectural Centre has made the following submission : Manners Mall Carpark on the WCC’s proposal’s for the redevelopment of Manner’s Mall. As you may note from the written and drawn information, we were very much less than impressed. We are calling for the WCC to scrap the current scheme owing to its predominate use of car parking, and to re-design the spaces for the use of people, not cars.

Wellington deserves better than this from our Council, especially at such an important, central city site.

Arch Centre proposes that Dixon St is made a part of the south side of Te Aro Park, and is not made into a giant car park:

Read More

Jan 28 2009
Love0

Wind, billowing skirts, and Italian property investors…

By Uncategorized

Despite being talked up by hardy locals and the odd poet (and I mean odd), one of Wellington’s least endearing qualities is the incessant wind.Ā The Encyclopedia of Chicago, that other famous Windy City, even attempts to shed the notion of Chicago being particular windy (in the climatic sense), by evoking:

Wellington, New Zealand, where it is more precisely meteorological.

This is all fine and dandy, accept for the fact that a recent article in the Guardian, ostensibly about Italian property investors buying a controlling stake in the famousĀ ManhattanĀ landmarkĀ FlatironĀ building, records the fact that the Flatiron building has long been associated with forceful wind velocities. That this group of Italians investors are collectors of ‘trophy buildings’, and thus are very satisfied with their latestĀ acquisition,Ā is remarkable enough, but the article goes on to describe one of the moreĀ infamousĀ effects that the high wind speeds were responsible for. Read More