29: Billboards over Buildings
What if there were no billboards on beautiful buildings?
This is one of these aspects of city life that on one hand is covered by regulation and compliance monitoring and on the other seems to require just a bit more common sense and decency, with an interesting aspect of financial return for building owners thrown in.
When is a billboard over a building acceptable? And when is it not acceptable? Not covering windows of habitable floor space should be a good bottom line. A building owner shouldn’t be allowed to do this, even if one can make more money from the billboard than the floor space.
We become immune to much advertising in our urban environments, but should this be acceptable?
Stuart Houghton 2014
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Some buildings in Auckland need to completely encased in hoardings. There is one in Albert St opposite Quay West.
On a related note, what if there *were* billboards on ugly buildings…e.g. the apartments Hobson St, or the hideous blank corner at the intersection of Broadway and Remuera Rd..
There is that ridiculously large billboard on the side of the building near the corner of Hobson and Victoria. Way to large, and always super ugly colours. Please don’t encourage zest etc to do the same thing.
Also, Mansons have put up some cranes above Vic Park car park that glow “Mansons” out of focus at night – do we really need to know is hiring each crane?
Good article here on the Times Square billboards
http://gizmodo.com/how-times-square-works-1582269710
” These signs are so central to the area’s identity that there’s actually a zoning code that requires all buildings on that stretch of Broadway to have at least one illuminated sign of a certain size. ”
“Developers figured out that they could make more money selling advertising real estate on the outside than maintaining an office building inside, so they kicked out all the tenants and started basically minting money.”
One the other hand – Vermont (and 3 others “scenic” US states) have no roadside billboards
http://www.nathanielrgibson.com/yes-we-have-no-billboards-rutland-herald-article/2012/03/13/
Another idea already reality in Napier, along with one of the earlier 100 ideas, of painting heritage buildings. In Napier all the 1930’s era art deco buildings are nicely painted and kept free of advertising. It transforms the city, and is highly popular with tourists from around the world.
PS, finding an additional 900 ideas is certainly setting a challenge 🙂
Depending whether the orgional building was boring or not. Sometimes a beautiful billboard can add vibrant to the city.
Regarding windows, owners of the bill board should either get a share of profit, or the purchase price of the unit should be discounted and disclosed before.
For tentant simply offer discounted rent if their window is blocked.
I believe the free market will handle itself.
Some cities had law that the lighiting billboard must be switched off or dimmed during sleeping hours.
Define beautiful. You can for yourself, but not for others. So it is ridiculous to suggest you ban them only on beautiful buildings if you can’t define what is beautiful. Either you allow them everywhere or nowhere. Which raises a whole other argument.
Adverts aren’t hurting anyone as long as they don’t breach advertising standards. So you don’t like the advert, then buy the building and take it down. What right do we have to tell someone what they can and can’t do with their own property? Isn’t it a limitation on the freedom of expression? It is a slippery slope that leads to too many rules and exceptions. Can they advertise their own business? What about someone elses business? Do you limit the size of the sign? The font type? The colour? The content? Can I put an advert on my truck and just park it up somewhere in front of the building? Ban all adverts on buses and taxis. The list goes on and on.
I don’t disagree with the sentiment of the suggestion, but I don’t like forcing my opinions on people by telling them I know best and they don’t. Its the same argument with the supermarket petrol discounts. What right do you have to interfere with someone just doing business trying to get a return on their investment?
I think the only option is just to ban all advertising everywhere like they did in Sao Paulo or in Vermont. Sure you will really hurt some business and there will be inevitable job losses, but you are also left with some ugly buildings that you have to look at all the time…except what is ugly and what isn’t?
I sometimes think Billboards add to the “feel” of an area, making it seem busy and lively. They’re just not necessarily appropriate for all areas.
Agree, I for one would like to seem more of the quality lit up kind around Aotea Square, our own little Times Square.
As I said before, I actually like high quality billboards….Especially electronic ones.
Billboards in the Central Area are governed by the Billboard Bylaw (2007). This prohibits billboards covering windows amongst other things. The billboards that do cover windows have exiting use rights and were in place prior to the bylaw and usually established prior to the RMA.
You will notice the new digital billboards around Auckland have replaced old static ones (they are not ‘new’ billboard sites).
You will also notice that these digital billboards have been raised up from where the old ones were to reveal the facade of the historic buildings the are mounted on.
Banksy on the matter: