The planned balance of private and public urban outcomes at Auckland’s redeveloped Wynyard Quarter has won international recognition. Private investors have developed successful structures and businesses there, while visitors, residents and tenants alike enjoy a wide range of publicly developed and owned spaces, squares and amenities including playground areas for children and youth. These inclusive common areas are attractive and already well used by citizens from all parts of Auckland.
The same cannot be said of Auckland’s Downtown waterfront where the existing commons is under threat of being sold for retail infill, encroached for private and exclusive uses, and congested by traffic particularly bus public transport.
This is not a new phenomenon for Auckland’s waterfront central business district. Quay Park, Britomart, Downtown and Viaduct precincts are relatively recent developments mostly built upon land reclaimed from the seabed by Auckland Harbour Board which it later redeveloped and vacated when containerization rendered wharves largely obsolete.
Over the past fifty years waterfront redevelopment plans have gradually rezoned CBD land that was previously used for port purposes into typically urban purposes by permitting office and retail development. Changes have always been contested by neighbouring property owners protecting private interests, and by Auckland City Council whose duties included provision of public infrastructure goods including transport and water infrastructure, and public commons including streets and public squares.
Civic calculations of gains and losses have played a critical role in decisions about the balance that is needed between enabling private investment and economic growth, and providing sufficient public commons to meet the civic social and cultural needs of the city’s growing and diversifying population.
One story about this planning activity is the Auckland Harbour Board’s sequence of headquarter buildings. Before 1970 Auckland Harbour staff were housed in an elegant three storey building at the corner of Quay and Little Queen Streets. Little Queen Street no longer exists having been “stopped” and swapped for Queen Elizabeth Square when Auckland Harbour Board redeveloped its Downtown site in the 1970’s to make room for the Air New Zealand Tower which it then occupied (now named the HSBC building). In the 1980’s, claiming that its lease was running out, Auckland Harbour Board applied to build a new headquarter building on Quay Street at the base of Princes Wharf. At the time Auckland City Council played a critical role in ensuring that open public space would be provided “contemporaneously” beneath the new futuristic looking building, and along parts of Quay Street.
In the mid 1990’s Ports of Auckland Ltd (established from Auckland Harbour Board) sublet all office space in that new headquarter building, and, arguing that the associated waterfront spaces were unsuccessful and better used for retail and office purposes, obtained consents to completely infill to the wharf deck. Quay Street public space was lost, the Port company gained increased rents, and opportunities to redevelop that commons and make the public spaces along Quay Street and Princes Wharf more successful were also lost.
Corruption might be too strong a word to describe what happened behind the scenes in this little bit of Auckland’s waterfront redevelopment history, but the urban politics relating to how public investment was allocated to produce something that looked like a common good but which eventually promoted gains in asset values for privileged property owners is an unhappy precedent.
Proposals to sell the Queen Elizabeth Square commons and reinvest the proceeds in possible waterfront spaces along Quay Street are being challenged by a number of public interest associations (including Auckland Architecture Association, Urban Auckland, Auckland Civic Trust, Living Streets Aotearoa). While Auckland Council has for at least two years issued media releases and engaged in selective stakeholder engagement processes relating to these proposals and plans for the Central Rail Link which passes beneath the square, it was not until June this year that statutory submissions were sought. Submissions generally acknowledge that Queen Elizabeth Square is an unsuccessful, windy and shaded space, raise questions about the planning processes for the whole downtown area which includes a new tower and the relocation of the downtown bus terminal, and call for the provision of commensurate or better public space.
Auckland’s waterfront is changing from being an industrial port to becoming a place that is attractive and interesting to the public and also to private investors. This is the story of urbanization around the world. The better the commons the more likely it is to be raided and appropriated by those seeking to make gains and to profit from it. Queen Elizabeth Square is 1800 square metres of prime commons estate within a city block which is being entirely redeveloped apart from two pre-existing towers. This urban commons was established by Auckland City Council when it built Little Queen Street. It is an urban space qualified and defined by surrounding buildings. Comprehensive redevelopment of the downtown site provides the opportunity to create a downtown square that is sunny, sheltered from the wind, and qualified by the buildings and uses that can surround it. Residents, office workers and visitors alike can use it.
Precinct Properties owns much of the Downtown site and has a conditional arrangement with Auckland Council to purchase Queen Elizabeth Square for $27 million. Its property promotions for the currently proposed redevelopment show the main 'public' space to be created is a six metre wide glassed-in laneway lined with shops aimed at “premium and high-end apparel retailers” and “stores which will attract the cruise ship and tourist markets”. This would be another waterfront retail infill development.
Streets are an important part of a city’s urban commons. Provided they are not congested with traffic. Streets and squares are the places where social and cultural exchange occurs within a city and where civic values of tolerance and understanding are fostered amongst a city’s people and its communities. Auckland needs more urban commons so that the possibility of an egalitarian population can be realised. These precious CBD spaces must not be handed over to become playgrounds dedicated for the use of “high net-worth individuals”. The redevelopment of the downtown block provides the excuse to properly incorporate the equivalent of Queen Elizabeth Square as a successful urban commons within the new built fabric of downtown Auckland.
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Thursday, October 15, 2015
CBD Infill Threatens CBD 'Commons'
The planned balance of private and public urban outcomes at Auckland’s redeveloped Wynyard Quarter has won international recognition. Private investors have developed successful structures and businesses there, while visitors, residents and tenants alike enjoy a wide range of publicly developed and owned spaces, squares and amenities including playground areas for children and youth. These inclusive common areas are attractive and already well used by citizens from all parts of Auckland.
The same cannot be said of Auckland’s Downtown waterfront where the existing commons is under threat of being sold for retail infill, encroached for private and exclusive uses, and congested by traffic particularly bus public transport.
This is not a new phenomenon for Auckland’s waterfront central business district. Quay Park, Britomart, Downtown and Viaduct precincts are relatively recent developments mostly built upon land reclaimed from the seabed by Auckland Harbour Board which it later redeveloped and vacated when containerization rendered wharves largely obsolete.
Over the past fifty years waterfront redevelopment plans have gradually rezoned CBD land that was previously used for port purposes into typically urban purposes by permitting office and retail development. Changes have always been contested by neighbouring property owners protecting private interests, and by Auckland City Council whose duties included provision of public infrastructure goods including transport and water infrastructure, and public commons including streets and public squares.
Civic calculations of gains and losses have played a critical role in decisions about the balance that is needed between enabling private investment and economic growth, and providing sufficient public commons to meet the civic social and cultural needs of the city’s growing and diversifying population.
One story about this planning activity is the Auckland Harbour Board’s sequence of headquarter buildings. Before 1970 Auckland Harbour staff were housed in an elegant three storey building at the corner of Quay and Little Queen Streets. Little Queen Street no longer exists having been “stopped” and swapped for Queen Elizabeth Square when Auckland Harbour Board redeveloped its Downtown site in the 1970’s to make room for the Air New Zealand Tower which it then occupied (now named the HSBC building). In the 1980’s, claiming that its lease was running out, Auckland Harbour Board applied to build a new headquarter building on Quay Street at the base of Princes Wharf. At the time Auckland City Council played a critical role in ensuring that open public space would be provided “contemporaneously” beneath the new futuristic looking building, and along parts of Quay Street.
In the mid 1990’s Ports of Auckland Ltd (established from Auckland Harbour Board) sublet all office space in that new headquarter building, and, arguing that the associated waterfront spaces were unsuccessful and better used for retail and office purposes, obtained consents to completely infill to the wharf deck. Quay Street public space was lost, the Port company gained increased rents, and opportunities to redevelop that commons and make the public spaces along Quay Street and Princes Wharf more successful were also lost.
Corruption might be too strong a word to describe what happened behind the scenes in this little bit of Auckland’s waterfront redevelopment history, but the urban politics relating to how public investment was allocated to produce something that looked like a common good but which eventually promoted gains in asset values for privileged property owners is an unhappy precedent.
Proposals to sell the Queen Elizabeth Square commons and reinvest the proceeds in possible waterfront spaces along Quay Street are being challenged by a number of public interest associations (including Auckland Architecture Association, Urban Auckland, Auckland Civic Trust, Living Streets Aotearoa). While Auckland Council has for at least two years issued media releases and engaged in selective stakeholder engagement processes relating to these proposals and plans for the Central Rail Link which passes beneath the square, it was not until June this year that statutory submissions were sought. Submissions generally acknowledge that Queen Elizabeth Square is an unsuccessful, windy and shaded space, raise questions about the planning processes for the whole downtown area which includes a new tower and the relocation of the downtown bus terminal, and call for the provision of commensurate or better public space.
Auckland’s waterfront is changing from being an industrial port to becoming a place that is attractive and interesting to the public and also to private investors. This is the story of urbanization around the world. The better the commons the more likely it is to be raided and appropriated by those seeking to make gains and to profit from it. Queen Elizabeth Square is 1800 square metres of prime commons estate within a city block which is being entirely redeveloped apart from two pre-existing towers. This urban commons was established by Auckland City Council when it built Little Queen Street. It is an urban space qualified and defined by surrounding buildings. Comprehensive redevelopment of the downtown site provides the opportunity to create a downtown square that is sunny, sheltered from the wind, and qualified by the buildings and uses that can surround it. Residents, office workers and visitors alike can use it.
Precinct Properties owns much of the Downtown site and has a conditional arrangement with Auckland Council to purchase Queen Elizabeth Square for $27 million. Its property promotions for the currently proposed redevelopment show the main 'public' space to be created is a six metre wide glassed-in laneway lined with shops aimed at “premium and high-end apparel retailers” and “stores which will attract the cruise ship and tourist markets”. This would be another waterfront retail infill development.
Streets are an important part of a city’s urban commons. Provided they are not congested with traffic. Streets and squares are the places where social and cultural exchange occurs within a city and where civic values of tolerance and understanding are fostered amongst a city’s people and its communities. Auckland needs more urban commons so that the possibility of an egalitarian population can be realised. These precious CBD spaces must not be handed over to become playgrounds dedicated for the use of “high net-worth individuals”. The redevelopment of the downtown block provides the excuse to properly incorporate the equivalent of Queen Elizabeth Square as a successful urban commons within the new built fabric of downtown Auckland.
The same cannot be said of Auckland’s Downtown waterfront where the existing commons is under threat of being sold for retail infill, encroached for private and exclusive uses, and congested by traffic particularly bus public transport.
This is not a new phenomenon for Auckland’s waterfront central business district. Quay Park, Britomart, Downtown and Viaduct precincts are relatively recent developments mostly built upon land reclaimed from the seabed by Auckland Harbour Board which it later redeveloped and vacated when containerization rendered wharves largely obsolete.
Over the past fifty years waterfront redevelopment plans have gradually rezoned CBD land that was previously used for port purposes into typically urban purposes by permitting office and retail development. Changes have always been contested by neighbouring property owners protecting private interests, and by Auckland City Council whose duties included provision of public infrastructure goods including transport and water infrastructure, and public commons including streets and public squares.
Civic calculations of gains and losses have played a critical role in decisions about the balance that is needed between enabling private investment and economic growth, and providing sufficient public commons to meet the civic social and cultural needs of the city’s growing and diversifying population.
One story about this planning activity is the Auckland Harbour Board’s sequence of headquarter buildings. Before 1970 Auckland Harbour staff were housed in an elegant three storey building at the corner of Quay and Little Queen Streets. Little Queen Street no longer exists having been “stopped” and swapped for Queen Elizabeth Square when Auckland Harbour Board redeveloped its Downtown site in the 1970’s to make room for the Air New Zealand Tower which it then occupied (now named the HSBC building). In the 1980’s, claiming that its lease was running out, Auckland Harbour Board applied to build a new headquarter building on Quay Street at the base of Princes Wharf. At the time Auckland City Council played a critical role in ensuring that open public space would be provided “contemporaneously” beneath the new futuristic looking building, and along parts of Quay Street.
In the mid 1990’s Ports of Auckland Ltd (established from Auckland Harbour Board) sublet all office space in that new headquarter building, and, arguing that the associated waterfront spaces were unsuccessful and better used for retail and office purposes, obtained consents to completely infill to the wharf deck. Quay Street public space was lost, the Port company gained increased rents, and opportunities to redevelop that commons and make the public spaces along Quay Street and Princes Wharf more successful were also lost.
Corruption might be too strong a word to describe what happened behind the scenes in this little bit of Auckland’s waterfront redevelopment history, but the urban politics relating to how public investment was allocated to produce something that looked like a common good but which eventually promoted gains in asset values for privileged property owners is an unhappy precedent.
Proposals to sell the Queen Elizabeth Square commons and reinvest the proceeds in possible waterfront spaces along Quay Street are being challenged by a number of public interest associations (including Auckland Architecture Association, Urban Auckland, Auckland Civic Trust, Living Streets Aotearoa). While Auckland Council has for at least two years issued media releases and engaged in selective stakeholder engagement processes relating to these proposals and plans for the Central Rail Link which passes beneath the square, it was not until June this year that statutory submissions were sought. Submissions generally acknowledge that Queen Elizabeth Square is an unsuccessful, windy and shaded space, raise questions about the planning processes for the whole downtown area which includes a new tower and the relocation of the downtown bus terminal, and call for the provision of commensurate or better public space.
Auckland’s waterfront is changing from being an industrial port to becoming a place that is attractive and interesting to the public and also to private investors. This is the story of urbanization around the world. The better the commons the more likely it is to be raided and appropriated by those seeking to make gains and to profit from it. Queen Elizabeth Square is 1800 square metres of prime commons estate within a city block which is being entirely redeveloped apart from two pre-existing towers. This urban commons was established by Auckland City Council when it built Little Queen Street. It is an urban space qualified and defined by surrounding buildings. Comprehensive redevelopment of the downtown site provides the opportunity to create a downtown square that is sunny, sheltered from the wind, and qualified by the buildings and uses that can surround it. Residents, office workers and visitors alike can use it.
Precinct Properties owns much of the Downtown site and has a conditional arrangement with Auckland Council to purchase Queen Elizabeth Square for $27 million. Its property promotions for the currently proposed redevelopment show the main 'public' space to be created is a six metre wide glassed-in laneway lined with shops aimed at “premium and high-end apparel retailers” and “stores which will attract the cruise ship and tourist markets”. This would be another waterfront retail infill development.
Streets are an important part of a city’s urban commons. Provided they are not congested with traffic. Streets and squares are the places where social and cultural exchange occurs within a city and where civic values of tolerance and understanding are fostered amongst a city’s people and its communities. Auckland needs more urban commons so that the possibility of an egalitarian population can be realised. These precious CBD spaces must not be handed over to become playgrounds dedicated for the use of “high net-worth individuals”. The redevelopment of the downtown block provides the excuse to properly incorporate the equivalent of Queen Elizabeth Square as a successful urban commons within the new built fabric of downtown Auckland.
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