There’s a very clear simple diagram to this building - a 2-storey rectangular building surrounded by green meadows and fields, with glazed walls opening out to the sun on the ground floor for the older children, and a creche safely tucked away on the first floor. The shield that wraps around the upper floor is in the form of stylized grass - “Das obere Geschoss erhält eine vorgesetzte Fassade in Form stilisierter Grashalme.” I’m not sure what material it is - hopefully its not something too expensive, like bronze - but it does do a lovely job of shading.

The form seems admirably simple for such a well-intentioned purpose - is there a comparably kitted-out kindergarten for our kleine folk? Ich denke nicht. Inside is featured a clean, green colourscheme, with vast expanses of glazed panels, and sloping seating inside - fit for a king. Or at least a prince. If not a judge. The heart of the design is the multi-functional space with grandstand style seating. It connects the kindergarten below with the toddler group upstairs via a generous interior space. All very curious though - reminds me of something else.

But curiously there is no dome. No giant Roc’s egg due to hatch. Dome’s aren’t compulsory of course, especially when undergoing kindergarten, and the whole ensemble seems neatly ordered and entirely befitting something for small screaming children (although in Austria, I suspect, they all avoid food colouring and their children just walk and talk normally, and don’t go out and wreak havoc - that sort of thing tends to be rather frowned on nowadays). Kada Wittfeld’s website shows that their range of architecture is just as clean and slick and modern as any comparable modernist practice - it shows that the current wave of boxy global modernism is truly worldwide. They have carefully and beautifully detailed timber screens on Aged Persons housing (even the oldies are modernists in Germany - none of your Malvina Major tweeness here) and a fine range of glass and concrete as you would expect from any group of black polo-necked young architekten the world over.

And no, before you go getting all excited over who copied who, the kindergarten project has only just been completed and opened, so clearly these schemes, as amazing as it may seem, have probably grown up completely independently of each other. Byegones. Onwards!

Despite that confusing possibility of a Big Bang while I zipped through the Sudoku, I got quite excited while reading the paper, due to the following statement in the report:

“Several new buildings are planned, including an award-winning design for what is now a car park just south of the Meridian building.”

Now, an award winning building is pretty special - especially if it hasn’t even been built yet. Its hard enough to build a building in real life, let alone virtually, and to win an award for that before it’s built: Someone must be very clever. Perhaps they are going to find one off-shore and ship it in to the site, south of the Meridian building. Very clever indeed. And even more so, as I thought there was a pub in between - the Loaded Hog, I believe. Here’s a picture of the ‘car park’ south of Meridian. Can you see room for an award winning building between the Hog and the Meridian?

Me neither. I can’t even find room for a car park there, and suspect that instead, the DomPost must be talking of the area North of Meridian - where, as we all know, sites 8, 9, and 10 are situated. Bit of a let-down there, except of course wonderful to hear that Athfield Architect’s 3 proposed buildings have already won awards. Still: the DomPost wouldn’t be the paper it is today without a few mistakes. But enough bitching about that - it’s simple enough to get north and south muddled up. Just like day and night really.

What I’m more intrigued about lies many miles away, in the fog-bound Queen city. For reasons that completely escape me, a couple of local body governmental bodies have bought Queens Wharf up there for $20 million or so - even though they already owned it. And hear me out - what exactly are they going to do with it? Apparently the plan is for it to become a “party zone” for the Rugby World Cup.

Now I’m not a frequent flier, so my geography may be a little rusty, but I still have Google-Earth and can figure out a few things like: the stadium is still going to be in Mt Eden, but the party is going to be at the bottom of Queen St. There is a couple of old sheds already on the Queens Wharf too. Not rich old beauties like we have in Wellington, with a row of old brick warehouses called exotic names like Shed 11 and Shed 13. No, the sheds in Auckland are just plain sheds, barely worthy of keeping. But the Jafas are going to keep the sheds, and spend up to $80m in total doing them up as a temporary party zone. Despite this being virtually next door to the existing Viaduct Basin party zone. The words ‘crazy’ have been mentioned.

Whatever. I don’t mind them spending their own money on their own crazy schemes. But isn’t the whole thing crazy? While its true that Auckland will hold the final, and a few other games, the rest of the World Cup games will be spread around the country. Wellington will be holding one of the semis. Dunedin, if it builds its stadium, will be doing likewise. And certainly Christchurch has a stadium ready to go and will hold matches there. Auckland still has to actually rebuild their stadium. But nowhere else in NZ do they have to spend that kind of money just to build a party zone, for essentially the last 2 hours of the whole World Cup.

You all probably knew about this already - and I can’t believe you’ve been keeping quiet. Is it just me, or isn’t this just the most terrible piece of product design that has ever set foot in this country? I am literally flabbergasted at how inept the design appears to be. Like a bad lampshade from the 80s, or a haircut from the Cure (ok, same thing really), for some unknown, unearthly reason we have swoopy plastic string coming racing down out of the ceiling, into a tightly corralled circle of robot machines. The robot computer machine things themselves seem to be newer and yet less functional than the previous standalone models (that were perfectly acceptable) - lets hope they didn’t spend money replacing all the old technology just a couple of years after the other ones were installed.

But what is meant to be happening here? The swoopy-up-into-the-ceiling bit implies that you can check your bag right in there, and some giant pneumatic vacuum will suck your bag up and whisk it away to the right jet airplane. I caught myself even looking at the giant exposed trusses in the ceiling to see if there was a possibility this could be so: but no. Mere frippery, the lot of it.

If I was the architect of the building, I’d be hopping mad at how badly designed these ridiculously pod things look and (don’t) perform. What on earth is happening at Air NZ that they feel the need to do this? Call the Design Doctor!

Updated 20 June
I’m not sure if I should use the term if you’re talking about steam-punk pneumatic-tube technology, but regardless: I’ve just found a few pictures and links to info about the “giant pneumatic vacuum” system I was alluding to above.

It appears that pnematic tube systems are often called Lamson tubes, after one of the older and more popular systems. While this image here is one of the newer models, with a strikingly similar appearance, and below is one of the older, more juicy, totally steam-punk, Dr Grordbort style entry capsules.

Most interestingly of all, however, is this link, which describes the pneumatic system still in use in Prague - knocked out by the nasty floods there in 2002, but hopefully restored to full use by now.

The Prague pneumatic delivering system has five main paths equipped with switches and concentrators, and 20 other direct lines. The total length of the system is 55km. It crosses the river Vltava three times. It was used to deliver packages with a weight of up to 3kg, with diameter up to 5cm and length up to 30cm, from any station to any other station by the means of the central system control room (illustrated). The central control room is located in a building of the main Prague Post Office (about 300m from Wenceslas Square).

That’s what’s I call a quick check-in baggage system!

But there is an eyesore that is troubling the residents, above and beyond such other eyesores such as the American Embassy, the abortion of a supermarket carpark, the ugly lumpy tower of the Police Association, the row of non-descript office towers etc: yes, its the Thorndon Tavern. Despite having such a captive population, and such a choice location, the owners (the Thai Embassy apparently), were happy to leave the former Tavern to rot for 20 years or more, becoming a terrible temptation for taggers to target. And when a Thorndonite is spurned into action, of course being a community of writers, they take action the only way they know how: yes, a Letter to the Editor: I’ve been noting these letters in the paper for a few months now.

Abandoned pub is an eyesore.
Am I the only one concerned at the eyesore that was once the Thorndon Tavern in Wellington’s Molesworth St? The building is clearly derelict and would look more at home in a Detroit slum than it does in a suburb in central Wellington. It’s been vacant for many years and, from the filth that now surrounds it, the broken, boarded-up windows and widespread graffiti, it’s been the overnight home for the homeless and a sizeable pigeon population for some time. The building is a blot on the local landscape and the local bodies should take steps to ensure the property’s owners, whomever they are, take steps to either demolish it or clean it up.
R LUTMAN Paraparaumu.

Beautifully timed was R Lutman, as almost the very next day the Thai Embassy explained that they were indeed looking at a new building for the site, but not before Janet Hood of Thorndon had her say: 

Some questions for Thai embassy.The owner of the decrepit, insanitary eyesore that is now the Thorndon Tavern is, I believe, the Thai Government, which bought a thriving business 20 years ago, closed it, and left the building to rot. Wellington City Council cannot force upkeep, because the building is now Thai territory. This is land-banking at its worst and the Thai embassy should be aware of Wellingtonians’ disgust and distaste for it, aggravated by Thailand’s status as a friendly nation. I suggest that the Thai Government, if it doesn’t want the building, gifts it to the city. Wellington is not a Bangkok property slum and I’d be interested, as would the thousands who work and live in the area, in a full explanation from the Thais about their government’s appalling loss of face.
JANET HOOD Thorndon

Ouch, Ms Hood. That aimed a bit low: but at least it did have the desired effect. It seems that the Thai Embassy is indeed raising its head, taking notice, and has decided to do something. And perhaps amazingly, it seems as though the answer may not be the normal one of “knock it down and start again” that they first wanted to do. I say this because a sign has appeared on the corner of the site: “Thai Embassy Refurbishment Project”. Which gives me hope that it may not, after all, be torn down and started again. Hooray and well done Thailand.

The architect, Colin Gunter, was the NZ Breweries architect, responsible for a number of solid concrete ‘Brutalist’ bars around the country, including the Cricketer’s Arms (now Happy, Club Garibaldi, Latinos bar) and also the nearby NZ Brewery building in Thorndon. There were proposals to replace the building with a tower, with one designed by Craig Craig & Moller, as noted here in Wellurban. There have also been some fairly long and drawn out discussions with the heritage lobby, I’m sure, as the good and bad points of the current building and the proposed development have been debated. While the Tav has been closed longer than I can remember, all I can do is admire the outside, especially the wonderful external staircase. Anyway, it shouldn’t be too long before we find out exactly what has been resolved: we at the Fish, and no doubt the rest of Thorndon, are keen to see what is proposed.

Mayor Welcomes Overseas Terminal Decision

Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast has welcomed the Environment Court’s decision, released today, that gives the go-ahead for the redevelopment of the Overseas Passenger Terminal (OPT) on Wellington’s waterfront.

Mayor Prendergast described the decision as a vindication of the move to upgrade and redevelop the OPT. “It’s great news for the city - and I look forward to Willis Bond making a start on this very high-profile development.” “While I’m relieved the decision has gone our way, I must say I was always confident that the Court would reject what was in reality a spurious and ill-conceived appeal against the consent granted in May last year.”
Mayor Prendergast says the OPT redevelopment would mean the Council is not faced with the bill for the upgrade of the terminal and the wharf it’s built on. Wellington Waterfront Ltd, a Council-controlled organisation, negotiated a $32 million deal in which Willis Bond & Co would pay for a 125-year lease on the wharf and terminal building. Under the company’s proposal the building would accommodate apartments on the upper levels and a range of other uses at wharf-level. The wharf would remain a public space with access to everyone.

The main points of the proposal:
Willis Bond & Co would spend some $16 million on repiling and strengthening the 101-year-old wharf on which the OPT sits.
Wellington Waterfront Ltd would receive some $16 million in cash and development benefits and improvements.
The improvements would include a water-level fishing wharf extension at the seaward end of the terminal, accommodation within the terminal of space for an artist-in-residence, and an upgraded public viewing platform at mezzanine level.

Mayor Prendergast says the upgrade will turn the OPT into “what it was originally meant to be - a destination”.

And goes on in that vein. Worth checking out for the full info.

So, what do you think of that decision? Come to think of it, what do I think of it? Hmmm, I’m not so sure.

On the one hand its a great move for common sense, as well as for Willis Bond and Athfield Architects - and saves the Council a lot of money from having to upgrade the wharf for no return. That was one helluva well-timed swim under the wharves with Mr Pike, wasn’t it Mayor Prendergast? If the Environment Court were wavering at all at that point, I’m sure that put them back on the straight path. It is a calamitous body blow for Waterfront Watch, with the Mayor calling their appeal against the OPT redevelopment a “spurious and ill-conceived appeal” - and, with the new, nasty, take no prisoners National government in place, that probably spells the death of public pressure groups from ever taking on subjects like this again. With the government’s Amendment to the RMA (”Streamlining and Slaughtering”?) Bill (itself possibly deserving of the title “spurious and ill-conceived”), and the proposed new massive increase in costs, it’s unlikely that Pauline Swann and her band of elderly masked Avengers will ever ride forth on their pensioner tricycles again.

And, all jesting and jousting aside, that’s a sad thing. Swann should be given a medal for standing up to the bullies at the Council and saying what she believes in. She and Lindsay Shelton, almost single handedly, stopped the Hilton dead in its tracks (massive shout out to the Civic Trust massive as well, of course - Respect to the Seniors!), and we haven’t really seen a mass outpouring of grief about that - except, quite possibly, in the WWL offices when they realised that they would have to pay for the wharf repairs on their own. Swann also has her off days - she (and the Waterfront Watch crew) also argued against the development of the Kumutoto area, and that now appears to be a well respected part of Wellington city. She protested heavily against the Council’s choice for Waitangi Park, still muttering for years afterwards that it was all a Council stack up job. But as a concerned Wellingtonian, pushing for the greater good of Wellingtonians everywhere, she deserves a gong. And, as we noted in an earlier post, she’s probably more likely to ever get one than any polo-necked local architect.

But, as always, there is another side to the story, and we shouldn’t let Kerry get her own way with the media spin-doctoring. “Mayor Prendergast says the upgrade will turn the OPT into “what it was originally meant to be - a destination”. Oh please, Kerry, just how gullible do you think we all are? What a load of absolute cobblers. It is a proposal for a set of extremely upmarket apartments for rich and wealthy yuppies, dinkies, and most of all, wealthy oldies keen on spending their kids inheritance. Oh, and with a little deck for fishing stuck on the end, where the poor and the hungry can go and cast a line into the water in the hope of pulling up a lonely sprat or two. It’s not going to be a “destination” at all.

Yes, I’ll give you that it hardly is a destination at all at present, and in a way, anything would be preferable to the current rust-ridden shed full of fake kashmiri rug-sales, italian pot-fares, bogus maritime clothing sales, saggy, baggy women’s knickers, and other generally run down, end of line, tawdry crap for sale. It is a destination just for tat and rat at present, but at least it is some form of destination. Once it is given over to the private sector for housing, that’s all it will really be: a rather nice housing area for rich people out on the water. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with that - rich people have to live somewhere, and who wouldn’t want to live out on the water, with the sea lapping round your metaphorical ankles? But why not just come out and say that, instead of trying to hide behind the well-spun fabric of PR tosh?

That’s a fairly staggering average rate of about 13.8 comments per post - which actually makes this one of the most active architecture and design blogs in NZ.

Hooray for us.

And boo to the approx 48.6 spam per post also. No, I don’t need or want your pills or your online gambling, and I certainly don’t want to see pictures of Paris Hilton naked. The only place for a Hilton in Wellington is somewhere along the waterfront.

By comparison, for instance, Share Architecture in Auckland has had 275 posts (far more than us - they’re rather prolific), but only 299 comments so far, in about the same length of time. They also note they’ve had just over 101,000 hits on their site, which is also far less than we’ve had - about 5 times less. So: Wellingtonians like to both read more about Architecture, and comment more about it too. I think that means that they think more too. Keep up the good work in coming here - and keep up the commenting. We like your feedback - its good to have discussion on Urban matters. More coming soon.

There’s a legal aid bill of at least $2 million, Crown costs of many millions as well, 150 prosecution witnesses time (although none of them were even there), and with estimated costs running at up to $500,000 per day, and a trial length of 57 days, with about a year or more of pre-trial legal costs as well, we’re looking at a cost to the NZ tax-payer of some $20-$30 million for this elaborate waste of time. So what else could we do with, say, $25 million?

$25 million could build us a fairly nice, green office building in central Wellington. It could build us a new Supreme Court, or at least half the cost of doing up the old Court building so that it could sit there empty and have school children going through. It could be added to the National Library refurb cost so that WaM could do their full Monty python external glitterbug version, winking in unison with giant videos at the empty cathedral opposite. $25 million could have bought us an Inner City Bypass that was underground and therefore unimpeded by cross town traffic, and it no doubt could bring us a second tunnel through Mount Victoria to let those busy commuters zip fleetingly from city to airport. $25 million could let us do the Manners Mall upgrade twice over, so that we can get it wrong at least once and then have another crack at the cherry. $25 million could get us a seventh of a Light Rail system from the Railway Station to the Airport - that has to be at least as far as from Bunny St to Willis St, which would be better than nothing.

But we won’t have any of that, because “justice has no price.” What a load of baloney. Can you imagine saying to your client that money is no object, because “architecture has no price” ? That should go down rather well, I’d imagine (not).

If you have read the Dominion Post article, you will also not know the full story. Whether due to the breaking nature of the announcement, or somewhat slanted journalistic intent, the dom doesn’t make mention of the news that the lower end of Cuba St down to Wakefield will be redeveloped as a pedestrian-oriented public space.

If done properly, this seems like it would alleviate any of the harms that adding buses to Manners will create. The streetscape of Manners Mall itself has little distinctive - or valuable - character. Especially after its 2003 makeover. Given its reputation as an emo/goth hangout, it would seem to be defined by the stereotypes that occupy it more than anything else. 

For this reason, I don’t see why the utility that Manners provides cannot simply be transplanted to the newly developed area of Cuba St, as the council has decided. Alarm bells sound when it is mentioned that this new space will be ’shared’ and not completely pedestrianised, however there are many precedents for such spaces being successful, so I will welcome the experiment.

Moreover, it is entirely possible that Manners Mall can be re-purposed as a similar ’shared street’. As a bus-only lane, the traffic presence would be relatively low, especially during the off-peak times. Manners’ place in the urban fabric of Wellington means it must be able to cope with large volumes of pedestrian traffic, but the addition of a bus lane is not necessarily a significant impediment to this. As with the lower Cuba development, this task will rest on the capabilities of the selected designers.

Also flying in under the radar are another series of other public space announcements:

New and improved pedestrian areas in Dixon, Wakefield, Mercer and Willis streets have also been approved over the next five years.

“We have a great opportunity here to create some really exciting new public spaces and I hope Wellingtonians will get involved as we look at the design of these areas in greater detail.”

Councillors also agreed today to extend the 30kph speed limit (already in place in Lambton Quay and lower Willis Street) to Courtenay Place and Manners Street; to put traffic lights on the three pedestrian crossings in Courtenay Place; and ban the right turn from Victoria Street into Manners Street. About 40 additional on-street car parks are planned.

In particular, the mention of Dixon St sounds promising. If Prendergast has any intention of inching towards banning cars in the CBD, the possibility of Dixon Mall should be heavily considered. Be sure to read the WCC press release in full: http://www.wellington.govt.nz/news/display-item.php?id=3542

So, my questions to you are these:

Can the function of Manners Mall as a public space be effectively relocated to lower Cuba?

Was Manners Mall a successful space in the first instance?

Should lower Cuba (and perhaps Dixon) be pedestrianised, and how? Should they be Cuba St’s? Courtenay Place Parks? Midland Parks? Lambton Quays? Something completely different?

Updated 11 June: with plans from the Wellingtonian. On the left, as it is, and on the right, as it is proposed.

A massive amount of awards also go to hitherto unknown mindless folk in government, or to those others for ’services to the community’. The whole system is a total farce, made even more so by the petty resurgence of naming recipients as Sir or Dame. Pathetic grovelingness knows no bounds. Queue hordes of fat cat business men to rip off the country and then put their hand out for a reward. Stand up Fay and Richwhite, richly rewarded for asset stripping the country back to the stone age, then leaving to exile in Switzerland, knighthood firmly thrust in bulging pockets. The grubby reality of knighthoods is rarely as good as the noble chivalrous imagery.

It’s better then, that we applaud the imminent opening of the newest building in Wellington, the massively large white-clad edifice on the waterfront that will be known as the BNZ. For years having resided in the large black obelisk that came to be known by some as Darth Vader’s pencil case, and is now confusingly known as the State Insurance tower (despite it still housing large chunks of the BNZ), the BNZ is once again retreating into one building, but with a massively different slant. The old BNZ (26 floors, designed by Stephenson & Turner in the 1960s, constructed over a period of over a dozen years and completed only in 1983), was a expression of it’s structural pedigree, and proudly stood up as a paragon of proud financial virtue, safeguarding our funds, the BNZ name and the NZIA logo emblazoned along the top: the tallest building in NZ for 3 short years.

Obviously, due to the length of time the building was tied up in the Boilermaker’s Union dispute (including 9 years as a rusting skeleton), the building was out of date before it opened, and is now anathema to the way that modern companies like to work. Not enough interaction between staff. The old upright model of a bank building has in effect fallen on its side, if not on its sword.

The new BNZ building represents a ground shift in thinking for the newly rebranded ‘tooth-paste logo‘ BNZ. With the new building, there are no more individual office floors, and impregnable realms of bosses hiding away: with its new 5 storey Jasmax design hugging the ground and hogging the shoreline, the new BNZ instead has 3 large floor plates interspersed with 2 giant atriums.

While one of these atriums is still held aloof one floor up and presumably will be accessible for staff only, the remaining atrium appears to be directly accessible to the public and should be a fantastic space for Wellington. It is crossed with aerial walkways that help the staff circulate, and has stairs rising up within. I also trust that it will have publicly accessible functions on the ground floor. If it does, I shall go and have lunch there every day. It is so close to the sea that you can almost imagine the fishing boats pulling up to the front of the atrium and selling their fresh fish catch direct to the public within the pleasantly large volume of the building.

But of course that won’t happen. There will be no public interaction within the building - the space will be closed off each night - we will not be having a Bavarian beer hall in the foyer during our occasional inclement weather. Still: at least it does make (or has been forced to make) a space for people. Yes, we know that the building is too massively large to comfortably sit there and hog so much foreshore, for sure, and that the relentless telescoping checker pattern facade doesn’t really work as a visual illusion, instead acting more as a giant white snake shedding its skin: but this is a building that offers a rare chance to add to Wellington’s public space network, to extend the lure of the waterfront walkway along from the central city and may one day even link in the forlornly marooned Centre Port facility back into the loop to let the workers there feel like they are still part of Wellington.