Keeping our train and bus stations clean and tidy is an important part in ensuring that we provide a pleasant environment for passengers. To their credit, Auckland Transport seems to manage this fairly well and I can’t really think of a situation where I have thought a station looks bad in this regard. In saying this there is one station on the network where not everything has been kept clean, yet interestingly I think this actually enhances it.
The station is New Lynn and let me explain why. The station was started back in the days of the Waitakere City council and they had a policy of including art works in every major infrastructure project undertaken. There are actually four different pieces of artwork included in the station but the one I want to focus on is the one that most train users see. Within the trench the walls are adorned with concrete panels which feature ripples and indentations which are said to reflect local landscape. Over time dust, which I understand has mainly come from the brakes of our trains, has settled in the groves and on the side of the ridges. It has a very natural feel defining the artwork better and in my view it only serves to enhance it.
But what do you think? Should it be cleaned down or should we leave it as is?
I was also at New Lynn to have a look at how the development is progressing. Since my last visit in January the new medical centre and carpark buildings have been completed which has seen the hoardings and fences surrounding them come down, and has opened up the final section of McRae Way (which is a shared space).
Here are the new buildings looking at them from McRae Way. I think that this street will really hum once a few more buildings are developed along it, like in the car park to the left of the shot.
There is at least one café going in the shops on the ground floor of the new buildings that will hopefully see much more use of this space.
Between the buildings a new lane has been created that is also lined with retail space. What I really like is that it is a continuation of the pedestrian crossing that comes straight from the train station.
On the other side of the building (the train station side), the building continues to be lined with retail. I like just how much space has been created so that those waiting for buses don’t get in the way of pedestrians and there is still enough space for the occupants of the shops to use some of the footpath. One single canopy keeps this all dry.
And here are the completed buildings from the other side.
All up things are looking good and once the retail stores have been fitted out it will help to bring a real buzz to the place. Construction will also be starting soon on the apartment tower that will go above the carpark building. As mentioned earlier I hope that these developments spur on more in the area. What has been completed so far looks excellent and really helps to give a nice urban feel to the town centre.
http://greaterakl.wpengine.com/2013/04/23/developments-in-newmarket-and-new-lynn-get-the-green-light/
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It’s been some time since I’ve been “above ground” at New Lynn – amazing, I can’t picture where any of these photos were taken. The place sure has changed (for the better).
These new buildings have been built on what used to be the old bus station
The only Negative I came across the other day Matt was that the RTI signs on Platforms 4a and 4b havn’t been replaced now that construction has been completed. Its a great station now though!
Quite agree with your comments concerning the brake dust on the trench wall mural. However there remain a couple of areas in the New Lynn station that are desperate for a proper clean, most notably the glazed canopies over the rail platform and the escalators: they’re filthy and their appearance detracts significantly from the overall look of the station. The other problem is with the WCC customised rubbish bins on the bus platforms: they leak so there’s a built up deposit of sugary muck, etc, spreading out from under their bases over the basalt paving: not a good look.
Mmmmh, how is the shared space working? Those extremely contrasting channel drains (did they have to be black?) say “carriageway here, footpath there” to me, not shared space. Mind, you, no question it is a lot better than a normal street either way!
I agree. doesn’t look like shared space at all. too much delineation. It is a very nice lane trying to pass off as shared space. I’d wager no pedestrian walks along the “road” and that they.stick to the “footpath”. just like Totara ave, a nice straight lane trying to pass off as shared space and ending with race start signals…I mean traffic lights….
I walked straight down the middle, had a couple of cars had to move to miss me 😉
I think it will really come right once there is more development and building along the edges. At the moment with the exception of the two new buildings there are just ground level car parks alongside it.
I agree with Ari, shared spaces that look like that don’t work. Not as bad as Alfred St in the Uni, or Lower Cuba, both of which are hopeless. Looks much too much like a road with the drains delineating the road, and street furniture just outside the drains. The Auckland CBD ones are much much better. I think if there was only one drain, or 2 evenly spaced dividing the road exactly into 3, it would be better.
“Looks much too much like a road with the drains delineating the road, and street furniture just outside the drains.”
This is almost an exact description of the Fort Street shared space in central Auckland…
Might be useful to do a post interviewing the designers about why they have delivered such conventional looking ‘shared spaces’ across Auckland. I understand some of their reasoning but the result seems to be too few cues for drivers to change their behaviour.
The high contrast deliniation between the parts where vehicles can drive and where they can’t is a requirement for disability access (i.e. partially sighted people).
Ergo; not a shared space but a delineated one.
The main carraigeway is still shared, just not the sides. Those are ped only.
I walked straight down the middle 🙂 I was there for a little bit and there were a few cars, all of who seemed to treat the space right.
Perhaps the artist could be consulted about whether or not to clean their sculpture (if that’s the word)? Perhaps if the rest of New Lynn station also looks grungy, then these fit that aesthetic; it might not be the case if the rest of the station were to be cleaned. To be honest, they look grubby to me.
I’ve seen her showing people around; she seems quite happy with the brake dust as it enhances the undulations of the panel topography. Oddly enough, they don’t look grubby, unlike the glazed canopies.
Is the ‘pattern’ of windows/non-windows on the medical centre complete, or is it yet to be finished?
Always thought the New Lynn station was unfinished. It needs the mesh above the concrete panels to be repeated below to cover up the pipe work.
To me, it always seems that mesh panels ought to be joined up over the top of the station to create a tunnel. I wonder if doing this was/is ever planned?
I LOVE the design on the concrete panels in New Lynn but always assumed they represented patterns left on the sand by the tide (so the orange ‘dust’ makes it look more authentic). But I do wish they’d do something about the green slime and rubbish that accumulates just below those panels and the tracks. And the noxious weed forest growing beside the tracks between the Asquith Ave road crossing and the St Lukes Rd overbridge. They used to have PD workers regularly clearing away the weeds (albeit very slowly!) but that hasn’t happened for a while.
Yes the cleaning of the track environment leaves a bit to be desired. Kiwirail doesn’t seem to take much pride in their corridor. I even remember seeing weeds growing in the New Lynn trench that were about 1m high.
I understood it was a negotiated design solution rather than a requirement. In any case, it tends to make these spaces just roads without kerbs.
Sigh. Back to the non-functioning comment threading. That was a reply to: http://greaterakl.wpengine.com/2013/04/24/to-clean-or-not-to-clean/#comment-66070
Hmm, I’m using IE10 and have not had a problem.
I think the problem comes with certain browsers when you are logged on on more than one device.
Jeez. That’s pretty sterile…
Which bit is sterile?
Photos 3 – 8
I agree – my feel too. Hopefully, that will improve over time, as things are added, shops opened etc… Hardscaped environments start out pretty bad sometimes, looking more like they were designed to be easily cleaned by a streetsweeping machine rather than used by humans…
Do 2 bedroom apartments cost $350k in New Lynn?… golly gosh
Cheers for the photos. I used to live round those parts about 6 years ago and it looks to have changed heaps. I think I’ll have to take a little trip out west by train some day soon.
Buildings look great but dissapointing that they didn’t provide a continuous canopy along the retail frontages in the ped lane
Problem started when site upgraded Jetpack. Timeouts. Doesn’t happen anywhere else, nor reliably here. Nothing I can change at my end.
Two things about New Lynn station, 1 – The lights along the bottom of the platforms need repairs and cleaning, at least half no longer seem to work or are so filthy they no longer give off light and 2 – get rid of the swamp forming at the Portage Rd end just past the platform, its not a great look. Otherwise the rust on the panels looks quite cool.