City Centre Rebuild: How Soon Is Now?

Patrick Reynolds is deputy chair of the City Centre Advisory Panel and a director of Greater Auckland

There is ongoing angst about construction disruption in the city centre. Fair enough: it’s very tough, CRL and other construction has been going on for a very long time. Like the pandemic, everyone is over it, and wants to be on the other side.

The good news is we are close to a significant end – not the end, of course, for a city is never finished. A city is an ever-changing process, more like a garden than an object, a creation in both time and space, in a state of constant adjustment.

The current big shake-up is culminating.

So what’s going on: how soon do we get our city streets, all nipped and tucked, back from the high-vis artists and cone jockeys? What have we been going through, why, and will it all be worth it? What’s the post-orange life for our little but mighty city centre?

Metamorphosis

As with a garden, periodically cities require a major overhaul if they are to thrive and remain relevant, as is currently underway even in well-established metropolises like Paris and London, as the only cities that don’t change are dead or dying ones (as in most things Venice is an exception to this, or perhaps it’s just been dying beautifully for centuries?).

Auckland’s current renewal phase began in Albert St in October 2015 with the beginning of the CRL works, and is due to be completed in Spring 2025, a full decade later. A decade is a frustrating length of time, and while the duration was exacerbated by the pandemic, it’s also a sign of the scale of changes.

The important thing is: we are 90% there, on the home straight.

Tantalisingly close. The darkest before dawn phase. As with the rail network, which is struggling to operate well through its current upgrades but will come out the other side, from Pukekohe to Swanson, a whole new thing; so it is with the city centre. From the Karangahape Rd ridge to the sea, we are getting a more people-centred and place-focused city centre, shaped better for the needs of the contemporary city.

For both systems, the efficient cause of this upheaval and possibility is the City Rail Link [CRL].

Albert St, Victoria St, Wellesley St, Mercury Lane, Pitt St and Beresford Square are all being reshaped to serve their new stations, plus a vast area of Mt Eden/Newton too. These will all be done – no more cones! – by Spring 2025, open to access and delight, before any member of the public even rides a train below them.

We know what the quality of the outcome will be like, because we already have the completed downtown examples: Quay St, Te Komititanga, and the clever light-touch Queen St refresh that’s improved the balance of this important spine by adding a river of people and planting.

The proof case for city revival based on provision of high quality transit with people-focused public realm was Auckland’s first rail-enabled urban renewal project; the beautiful and successful Britomart. The station opened in 2003, with Cooper & Co delivering and continuing to manage both the restoration of heritage buildings and addition of new ones, like the gorgeous Hotel Britomart; and the creation of well-used public spaces, like Takutai Square.

We know these improved public spaces are super popular, that they work; they bring people; society and commerce, and increased investment. We know that delivered together, high-quality public transit and people spaces are force-multipliers. Which is why this is explicit policy, as noted here by Councillor Richard Hills:

“I want Aucklanders and visitors to feel confident that we are creating welcoming and inclusive streets and spaces, along with underground infrastructure, in a planned and co-ordinated way so that the areas surrounding the stations will be ready for the transformational opening of the City Rail Link in 2026.”

The story of Britomart 1.0 bears repeating. When central government rejected Robbie’s Rail in the 1970s, that setback condemned the wider city to a near-total pattern of driving and sprawl, and made for a moribund and declining city centre. The (amazingly) difficult battle to get the Britomart project both funded (for which, kudos to then-Mayor Christine Fletcher in particular) and designed with a better place focus was what finally broke the spell of three decades of failed public planning and investment in the city.

The regeneration of Britomart, both above and below ground, marked the turning point towards fixing the failures of the last major urban reset – the total reshaping of all streets to serve motorways and parking structures undertaken after the removal of the tram network, as described here.

It’s getting hard to remember just how sad and broken the downtown and waterfront was in the wake of that reset, and before the renaissance of Britomart. Even into the 1990s, the whole length of the inner city inland from port was just ruin or industrial bad lands.

The total rebuild of this vital area –  from the rail yards in the east to the Harbour Bridge in the west – has followed, and is hugely successful, now defining the city. Significant temporary events like the Americas Cup in 2000 and the RWC in 2011 were also key to the development of the waterfront and the city centre, creating deadlines for public and private investment in the city centre, and leaving permanent changes in their wake.

The revitalisation of the derelict waterfront is therefore a significant success for consistent Council-led planning in partnership with key private sector investors. In particular the Auckland Design Office led, place focussed City Centre Master Plan has been the guiding light in this major transformation. Beautiful is valuable, and having an ambitious vision is essential, but it also has to be able to be funded and delivered, which cannot be done by Council alone.  The key five downtown investors are, east to west along the red fence: Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, Cooper & Co (Britomart), Precinct (Commercial Bay), Viaduct Harbour Holdings, and Eke Panuku (Wynyard). We continue to be pretty fortunate with these partners. Generally their standards are high and they understand the value of a great public realm and improved public transport, both for their businesses and for the success of the city in general.

Their work continues, but now the focus is deliberately about extending these qualities inland through the rest of the city – riding, as it were, the surface changes made both necessary and possible by the CRL.

The CRL is a rare thing; an actually transformational project. Most change is incremental; few infrastructure investments truly change the whole shape and tone of a city.

The Harbour Bridge did, and the CRL will. Indeed, it already is, around the station precincts, and with the developments it is attracting (not just in the city centre either, but also elsewhere on the rail system like Henderson).

A key sign that something is transformational is that it is misunderstood, underrated, sometimes even by the people tasked with promoting it. This is because truly transformational projects change things well beyond their immediate purpose and are not merely an upgrade of the existing pattern.

Yes, the CRL will significantly improve access around Auckland. But also, it is already completely changing the city centre’s street patterns, built form, and investment flows. It will eventually reshape our whole city’s story about itself, and our global reputation.

This is really important and necessary for the viability of Auckland – for our ability to compete internationally, to lead nationally, to attract visitors, students, business, and respect.

We’ve got another year of patience ahead as these street upgrades roll out, and a little longer before we can actually ride those trains. It has taken vision and courage by city staff and elected members to bring us to this point, and it will become obvious soon enough how valuable this work is.

This is anything but a dysfunctional central city; it’s just one in the last difficult stage of climbing out of its Chrysalis, getting ready to fly.

Share this