Where is the Heart? Critical Public Space in the City Centre
Ever since the Town Hall was built on that odd triangle between converging streets half way up Queen St Auckland has failed to successfully find an important central location that can be considered its spiritual locus. A civic heart: A public space for those collective experiences; celebrations, protests, that everyone automatically understands is the right and fitting place.…
27 Comments What to do with the Central Wharves
The Downtown Framework (18MB) was released last week and one of the interesting set of challenges to deal with is the Central Wharves. These are the finger wharves spread out across the core of the CBD from Princes Wharf in the west to Bledisloe Wharf in the east.…
Lincoln Rd consultation feedback
Between last November and February this year Auckland Transport ran consultation for a plan to further widen Lincoln Rd. It’s a road I’m particularly familiar with seeing as I use it regularly.
The upgrade seeks to widen Lincoln Road to provide an additional bus and high occupancy vehicle (transit) lane on each side of the road to increase capacity and improve passenger travel times.…
Caption Competition: Gerry and Julie
On Friday Night Prime TV’s Prime Time with Shaun Plunket hosted a debate on transport with Gerry Brownlee, Julie Anne Genter, Cameron Pitches and Ken Shirley (CEO of the Road Transport Forum). You can watch the discussion here. There wasn’t anything new that came up from the discussion however perhaps my favourite part of the whole thing was before the cameras started rolling.…
4th batch of Special Housing Areas Announced
Yesterday the council and government announced the next batch of Special Housing Areas. These are the areas that are able to use a fast tracked consenting processes and for which the Unitary Plan rules (with a few conditions) come in to effect immediately.…
Photo of the Day: The Waitemata from Pt Resolution Bridge
Auckland is a city with great harbours, or rather, is a couple of great harbours in search of a city. When we finally take the city down to the waters’ edge more fully this place is going to become really delightful to to visit and work in, but also extremely photogenic.…
Stuart’s 100 #26: A Great Urban Beach
26: A Great Urban Beach What if Auckland could grow a truly great urban beach? What would the ingredients for a great urban beach be?
Auckland has many great beaches and an outstandingly beautiful coastline. These are strong contributors to its high liveability ranking.…
Auckland’s city centre is getting more diverse
This post is the first part of what will be a three-part series on Auckland’s city centre and the 2013 census stats on it. Today, I’m looking at the changing demographics of the city centre.
Age Groups
The graph below shows the changing age structure of city centre residents, from 1996 through to 2013: As shown here, we’re seeing a broader mix of age groups starting to live in the city centre.…
The Downtown Framework
Yesterday the Auckland Development Committee approved the Downtown Framework which has been put together by the City Centre Integration Group (CCIG) which is a team comprised of members from all the relevant council agencies (e.g. Auckland Council, Auckland Transport, Waterfront Auckland etc.).…
Stuart’s 100 #25 The Original Act of Philanthropy
25: The Original Act of Philanthropy What if all Aucklanders understood the founding act of philanthropy in this city?
Every city should have an understanding of how it came to be. The gifting of some 3000 acres by Ngati Whatua to Captain Hobson to allow the establishment of Auckland is a hugely significant act.…
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