Public demands demolition of NZ Herald building

April 21st, 2008. Posted in Media
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I walk up and down Albert St twice a day, to and from the ferry terminal. And every day I ponder how Albert St, surely one of the CBD’s most under-utilised streets, is ruined by the extremely ugly APN/Herald building.

So it comes as a slight surprise the NZ Herald is using it’s front page today to harass Westfield for seeking planning permission to build a 41 story “skyscraper” near the waterfront, just down the road from the Herald’s Soviet-era design.

The buildings Westfield is replacing/upgrading aren’t much prettier than the Herald’s, so it will be nice to see them go. I’m guessing they plan on integrating a much larger Westfield mall into the base of the planned apartment tower; the Auckland CBD doesn’t have a significant mall.

Overall, Westfield’s plans sound like a net gain for the Auckland CBD, ignoring the fact we’re talking about private property which can be enhanced any way they want, so long as planning restrictions are complied with.

One major public concern is noted at the end of the article: ARTA is pondering the construction of a through-tunnel from Britomart, which would go under the proposed Westfield building. However it seems ARTA has neglected thus far to get a “designation” over the route of this tunnel, which sounds like a major bureaucratic fumble to me, assuming formal plans and budgets for this tunnel even exist.

I know what the real story is, and it doesn’t involve Westfield’s substantial investment in their own land for the benefit of themselves and Auckland.

  1. One Response to “Public demands demolition of NZ Herald building”

  2. By jasmin on Apr 25, 2008

    Apparently, planning for the loop tunnel that connects Britomart to Mt Eden via Albert street has just begun.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10496216

    found this……

    “Spokeswoman Sharon Hunter said the authority was working in conjunction with the Auckland City Council to “protect” the route, although she did not have details of how that might be achieved, and whether any restrictions may be looming on conflicting property developments”

    Will be nice to have a train network that isn’t near capacity, works well and a reasonably good mall, wonder if we’ll have both.

    Reply

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