I was initially disappointed by the decision that SkyCity had won the bid for a new international convention centre in downtown Auckland. I was more of a fan of “The Edge” proposal, largely because a key part of that proposal would have involved the restoration of the St James theatre. Plus the convention centre would have been pretty much on top of the future Aotea train station and may have also involved a well overdue overhaul of the hideously ugly Aotea Centre building.
However, putting that disappointment (and a wariness of the deals that seem to be behind the decision) aside, I wonder whether this decision could be a huge catalyst for revitalising and improving this section of the city centre, and perhaps in particular whether it could become the catalyst for implementing my hope of Hobson and Nelson Streets being returned to two-way streets rather than being defacto motorways. Indeed, with so many people likely to be flocking to this part of the city it would seem nearly essential for the streetscape around the area to be improved.
But I’m sceptical to a certain degree. Rather than being a building that supports and improves its surrounding landscape, SkyCity’s current design is utterly horrific. Vehicle entrances are angled so that cars can speed into their carparks without taking a foot off the accelerator. Even the footpath from a whole side of Hobson Street has basically disappeared thanks to the building’s design and its complete hatred of pedestrians. Instead of demanding that SkyCity improve its pedestrian environment, the council has over and over again allowed further degradation – including air-bridges linking the SkyCity hotel with its main building. I assume so that all those rich customers can avoid the horror of the pedestrian environment in the area. There were some noises recently about ways to improve this, although I don’t know whether those plans still exist given this recent decision about the convention centre.
Looking at the proposed design (images from here), I have only mixed hopes of SkyCity doing any better this time around:
In the top image, the street that’s visible is Hobson Street. We see some planting in the median of the street – which is promising. But then we see an air-bridge linking the convention centre with the existing SkyCity building. The air-bridge idea is a cop-out in my opinion: a recognition that the street environment is so horrible we must make it easy for people to avoid it. I would hope that an absolute bottom line for resource consent for this proposal is that there will be no air-bridges. Let’s force SkyCity to come to the party in improving the pedestrian environment of the area.
In the bottom image, we see Nelson Street in the foreground with Wellesley Street on the far right. The street environment appears a lot better than what we have now, although it would be good if Nelson Street could be broken down into a two-way street and ‘humanised’.
So perhaps overall the decision to site the convention centre here may turn out to be a good thing. A catalyst for improving a pretty run-down part of the city at the moment. However, that will rely upon a vastly better planning and pedestrian focused outcome compared to what we saw 15 years ago when the existing SkyCity building was constructed. If we saw no air-bridges, the two-waying of Hobson and Nelson streets and significant upgrading of surrounding footpaths and other pedestrian areas, then this could well turn out to be an improvement to this part of the city. Though I still reckon the Aotea Centre site proposal would have been better.
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I have mentioned in a few places now the hope that the council will use this as a catalyst to two way Hobson and Nelson St, it would make sense to do up those streets at the same time as it would stupid to have a nice brand new convention centre with the street still as horrible as it currently is. I’m not to fussed about the air bridge, for one it provides sheltered access for those days when the rain is driving in.
Also I think you have missed the fact that the Aotea station will be less than 200m away from the convention centre. I think it is quite likely that SkyCity would be prepared to pay to have direct access from the station to their premises so it means that there will be good access to the centre from the station. This will get even better when a line to the airport is built as delegates could get off a plane and then catch a train all the way to town, to a station surrounded by hotels and with good access to the convention centre they are visiting.
While SC will benefit from an underground tunnel to the station, I think they might call their limit at $350m, and ask the council to pay for that.
But simply, if a tunnel is not factored in (either in advance or once the CBDRL and the site of the Aotea station is confirmed)then Auckland simply has not learned anything about public transport, and the movement of people around its city
I doubt skycity would give up the airbridge, connects people direct to the casino.
Also will it take up the whole block apart from the TVNZ building?
I hope they can leave the Albion at the corner of Hobson and Wellesley alone, there arent many of these pubs left so wouldn’t want to see another go. With a nice street environment could be really good.
Hard to have quality street access as it fronts to that hopeless street-destroying intercity bus terminal.
Agreed the Edge would have been preferable, but this does improve what is probably the worst block in the CBD so guess its not all bad.
Just hope the consent planners and urban design panel don’t roll over too easily. They should be involved ASAP to ensure a quality design and so can work together with council to improve the street environment.
The building shows a lightness of form that is hard to imagine. Glass, recesses, and other tricks to diguise the bulk of the building. I expect it will be much heavier and dominate the slope, casting darkness over its surrounds for much of the day.
Skycity will want their airbriges. They connect people directly with the hotel and gambling areas. A direct funnel from a public asset into a private one. A bigger transparent rort of the planning process I struggle to think of.
By the way, Len Brown took $15,000 from SkyCity. In his campaign he opposed expansion of the gambling industry. He’s changed his tune now.
The images show that basically nothing on Wellesley Street will be touched, so basically it’ll just be the buildings in the middle that will go – they compose a road down under Hobson Street connecting to the huge carpark that skycity currently has and an additional carpark. I hate to wonder how many more carparks Skycity will build and I’m sure they’ll want to continue using their existing carpark access tunnel from Nelson street, the images suggest Nelson street will be the home to a huge car and bus entrance. Lovely. To be honest, I think this time around they will be required to do a lot better simply because Auckland has grown up in the last few years (or should I say grown down to the early days when the city was built around people and trams) such that SkyCity will be required to take a lot more consideration of the street level amenities.
Yes this is a great opportunity to push for these streets to get the attention they deserve.
Am I alone in my view that trees in the centre of streets is very much a second class option to the amenity they provide when on the footpaths? On the side of streets they provide shade and shelter to pedestrians, a little extra width to separate people from traffic. It seems to me that they are largely an amenity for drivers when in the centre and an acknowledgement that this is no place to be walking. Give me Symonds St at the University over upper Symonds St any day.
We mustn’t hand Hobson and Nelson to Sky City as just their feeder lanes. And this means limiting any additional parking and insisting that the new building opens on the surrounding streets.
If you look at this image http://eyeonauckland.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/ACC-3-COLLAGE.jpg you can see that the proposal appears to replicate what we have on Hobson street currently with a big chunk of the footpath taken away to allow easier vehicle access to the conference centre. On the positive side the image does appear to give the impression that something will be done to the area outside Skycity on Hobson Street – in that the footpath now appears to be a lot larger than what it currently is. I guess now that this have been given approval we need to wait and see what the detailed renders show, and hope that the government hasn’t pushed this through the consenting process.
> I guess now that this have been given approval
It has not been given approval – National government has stated that that is the proposal they are happy to support. It will still have to go through the usual consents processes.
What worries me is not so much the streetscape (that remains public land, and thus can be changed), but the amount of car parking. Do we want another 1000-2000 car parks in the CBD? Because they WILL be included in that proposal, as night follows day.
We’re also getting another 3000 carparks right next door in Rhubarb lane…..
Well I can’t see Rubarb going ahead as it is planned, it doesn’t look like it stacks up- anybody got info to refute this, ie actual sales? But really 3000 carparks, this is all insane….. just so we can then build more highways, then more carparks…… what a beautiful and viable city we are making…..
I don’t know what all the fuss is about airbridges. Sure, you don’t want them on every street, but a few (well designed ones) here and there add variety to the streetscape if you ask me. And it kind of suits a development likes this, which has different uses spanning two sides of a street.
Its kind of an experience for people staying in the hotel on one side, to make the trek across and above the street, to the convention centre on the other side. I like that idea. I was in the Marina Bay Sands (Singapore) last year for a conference, and the walk between the hotel and the convention halls is not only long, its dire – through a mall where the only view of is of Gucci/Bulgari/Chopard shop windows
In saying that, it shouldn’t mean that in return Hobson be left as a defacto motorway, where pedestrians moving between the two sides of the street are discouraged. The two-laning, with a good street level, pedestrian-friendly design should still be the goal.
Wouldn’t the proposed Aotea station under Albert street be essentially at the back door of the Skycity Grand thou?
That is already linked to the Main casino via an existing airbridge over federal, + if the shared street works well and has adequate weather protection, this would enhance this linkage?
With the completion of the elliot shared street, the council needs to ensure that whatever goes into the car park/former elliot tower site has strong linkages with a laneway etc through to Albert to help tie this part of town together a bit more.
I don’t understand your issue with air bridges. In Calgary most of the CBD is connected via air bridges called the +15 (generally 15 foot above ground), true this has a lot to do with long very cold winters but it creates an entire shopping experience. I can’t see why there is not a requirement for improving the street level pedestrian environment while also including air bridges.
I always love these types of drawings as they always show only 4 or 5 cars on the roads. There is usually a token cyclist and a pedestrian or two (but not in this case, which is a worry). Anyone who knows these streets can tell you that the numbers of cars on this picture should be well over a hundred with lots of fumes coming out the back and impatient drivers shaking their fists and honking their horns!!!
While everyone is saying this option is great — we pay nothing! — I haven’t heard any mention of the opportunity cost of gifting them the casino license and gambling area extension. According to wiki they made $670M profit from the site in the first 10 years alone, and given the whole operation revolves around the casino I’d suspect they’d be willing to pay a reasonable amount for either of these operating extensions.
On the other related issue, I’m against most sky bridges or building over roads as they disrupt the sight lines/open space. The one across lower Albert Street — placed perfectly to block the harbour view as you walk down the street — is our worst offender, particularly when Westfield use it for advertising space. SkyCity’s proposal to cover 1/4 of the length of the Federal Street block would have been even worse though due to its massive size.
“given the whole operation revolves around the casino I’d suspect they’d be willing to pay a reasonable amount for either of these operating extensions.”
They are paying $350m for those extensions.
iam kindly requesting ……can i have the plan for my case study