The entrance to the underground concourse from Queen Elizabeth Square to Britomart. Personally I much prefer walking out of the front doors of Britomart and crossing the road rather than use this (unless it’s really pouring with rain).
Photos is copyright to Sydney
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We’ve never quite got that area right. Feels cluttered but also empty of anything worthwhile. A sad missed opportunity.
Well the good news is we will get a chance to fix it shortly as it will have to be dug up for the CRL
Only in Auckland is 5-10 years for a pedestrian improvement “shortly” 😉
Shortly the world is going to end too,… in cosmic terms.
Advantage of using the concourse is you don’t have to go through those awful sliding doors that never open fast enough.
Never quite understood the fact that both the lift and the stairs are raised 25cm above the ground level. Was it really bad detail design or an uncanny premonition that rising sea levels might turn Queen Elizabeth Square into an Antipodean Piazza S Marco? While I suspect the former I’ll be delighted to see the whole thing removed. It’s probably one of the least attractive public spaces in Auckland, particularly with that stupid slab of rock fountain topped with a gas flame; a depressingly inept monument to Auckland’s burgeoning, transport-based, carbon emissions.
Bad detail design, pretty typical around Auckland.
No comment on the general dire, windsweptness of the area, but I assumed it was raised to keep surface water from rain flooding it.
Funny, was JUST an hour ago thinking the same. I venture that at the time this was built, someone decided that the plaza should be higher eventually. So they built the lift accordingly, and then nobody ever did anything to change the plaza. That sounds realistic to me (though it’s just a guess).
Why no escalators?
John Banks removed them from the original design to save money. Originally this went all the way to queen St and the ferry building.
Those people in the pic used it only because they are tourists and didn’t know where they were going. Most people don’t use it.
I use the stairs here to access the pedestrian tunnel to the platforms every single working day. Avoids having to cross the massive queen street bus terminal tarmac and deal with the cluttered main entrance of britomart with poor people flows. Downtown shopping mall and the QE square is an eyesore but at least its a free flowing pedestrian only space.
Me too. Not so many people and far less risky than crossing the road.