Waterfront hotel investigation II

Received from Hype O’Thermia
Saturday, 18 May 2013 4:41 p.m.

External cladding and glazing treatment (Dunedin study)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: Red Carpet Fashion via stuff

Shane McGrath —Gelber LuftBallon (Dunedin Research Project)

Artist sculptor Shane McGrath successfully built and flew, with the help of friends, a helium-filled yellow blimp today at Customhouse Quay in Dunedin.
Relatively still air conditions twice allowed the ‘friendly’ luftballon to gain maximum height – simulating, indirectly, the proposed height (96.3 metres) of the hotel and apartment tower planned for the vacant site across the road at 41 Wharf Street.
McGrath had earlier made sure the planned flight received CAA clearance.
The blimp contained smaller balloons filled with the gas to guard against a sudden downing. A small team of men, including McGrath, coordinated the length and position of the guide-lines, keeping the blimp off surrounding buildings and roads, and out of harbour waters.
The bright photogenic structure – alternately Lemon, Zeppelin, Chrysalis – hovered impressively overhead for half a day, long enough for professional photographers and camera people to take stills and recordings from the site and prominent vantage points around the city.

Images: Elizabeth Kerr

Gerard O’Brien’s outstanding photographs place the Gelber LuftBallon in the city context – see tomorrow’s Otago Daily Times.

Enter hotel in the righthand search box to learn more about the proposed hotel and apartment building for 41 Wharf Street.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Reykjavik, Iceland: The strongest mirror [speculative apartments]

I missed it – the press release of Thursday 21 March, issued by Otago Polytechnic.

Icelandic Activist To Speak At Dunedin School Of Art
Iceland democracy activist and artist Hordur Torfason will be speaking at Otago Polytechnic’s Dunedin School of Art on Wednesday the 27th of March, as part of a series of nationwide talks on modern democracy. cont.

By chance, at morning coffee a friend mentioned the speaking event and offered a ride there. Well. Not one speaker, but two – our good fortune doubled.

All Dunedin residents should have downed tools, pots and pans to attend.

The two men from Iceland, Hordur Torfason and life partner Massimo Santanicchia, each delivered a session at the School, with Santanicchia up first.

They shared intriguing, calm, sensible statements about their lives and work, about the quality and countenance of human social interaction, within a gripping exposé of the capitalist drain and the peaceful revolution that occurred in their financially devastated homeland, with thoughts to urbanism, greed, discrimination, corruption, property speculation, sick governance, economic collapse, human rights, the lobby power of silence, noise and internet, and the Icelandic people’s hard-won solidarity for change.

A compelling two-hour glimpse at a nation losing and finding itself.

Iceland’s capital city, Reykjavik, is the strongest of mirrors held to Dunedin’s glaring errors of recent and pending ‘big’ construction, economic blunders, and forces of business and political corruption – in turn, Dunedin reflects our nation’s wider political and economic struggles.

[Dunedin, we're not crippled here yet... but New Zealand? Blind rhetoric.]

Proposed hotel and apartment building, Dunedin (ODT Online, 21 Dec 2012)

Derelict Reykjavik highrises

While on our photowalk today we passed these buildings on the sea front. I thought they were just another apartment building until I noticed that the balconies were fenced in by planks of wood held together loosely!
Donncha O Caoimh (9 March 2012)

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Originally from Perugia, Italy, Massimo Santannichia graduated from the School of Architecture in Venice in 2000 and holds an MA from the Architectural Association, School of Architecture in London, and an MSc in Urban Studies from the London School of Economics. He has been working as an architect and urban designer in Italy, the UK and Iceland. Over the last decade he has come to know Reykjavik intimately. Essentially an outsider in the tightly knit Icelandic society he has survived the downturn by moving from the firm Arkitektur to a plethora of internationally connected activity – delivering courses at the Iceland Academy of Arts since 2004 and coordinating projects and workshops with organisations such as the International Peace and Cooperation Centre and the Architectural Association.

Santanicchia’s research interests include relations between the ecological, physical, social and economical aspects of cities. He has lectured extensively on the subject of sustainable cities and small scale urbanism in Zurich, Athens, Oslo, London, Venice, Riga and Reykjavik.

Santanicchia, second from right (AA Summer School promo for July 2013)

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The Production of Space: The lesson from Reykjavik

According to Santanicchia, small cities (less than 500,000 inhabitants) host fifty-two per cent of the world’s urban population, yet they are profoundly neglected in the urban studies field. His presentation at the School of Art focused on the small city of Reykjavik (118,326 inhabitants), investigating how the planning system is trying to build a new urban strategy away from the world city model which was adopted until the banking collapse of 2008.

Reykjavik, Iceland – vernacular housing (trekearth.com)

Commodifying the view…
In particular, Santanicchia noted Reykjavik’s receipt of its first ‘tall buildings’, a crop of extraordinarily bleak apartment developments set against the vernacular lowrise, 3-4 storeyed townscape, blocking existing residential views of the coastline – through to (now dead) speculative drive-to malls and commercial buildings ['build it and they will come'] further problematised by the profound lack of public transport and infrastructural support to the (then) ‘new phase’ of development.

Throughout the commentary, the physical and moral contradictions were purposefully illustrated by well-selected slides, quotations, and use of statistics. Santanicchia’s creative and socio-political approach to what ails, and demonstrations of how to foster community investment in sustainable environment, is the busy-work of a contemporary intellectual with a warm humanity, grounded in the discipline of practical economics working for the public good.

He and students have won grants to set ‘in place’ temporal urban interventions that sample ways forward for the local community, utilising vacant and degraded public places; demonstrating creative re-design / re-forming of the opportunities lost to the blanket of capitalist-grey asphalt – making places that create “trust” between institutions and among people.

[This work is very similar to that of Gapfiller in post-quake Christchurch.]

Reykjavik’s dislocated waterfront (‘reconnection’ project work)

Copy of Santanicchia’s presentation slides and readings will be made available through Professor Leonie Schmidt (Head of School).

A few points he made along the way, from my notes:

● When “priority is given to economic development”… the city becomes all about ‘building envelope’, ‘the city as a series of volumes’ (bulk and location) | “Management of the economy is not a city, is not urban planning.”

● In 2008, Iceland’s economy shrank 90%. The economy devalued by more than 100% in one week. 1000 people emigrated which kept unemployment low.

● “Big-fix” solutions don’t work in a small city.

● The DANGER of “one idea”… “it is NOT a plurality”.

● “The WORST is what was built.” Flats and parking lots. No public transport. No sharing. 7000 apartments at Reykjavik are redundant. 2200 properties have been acquired by the banks.

● “The WORST neighbourhoods were created in the richest years.”

● The government didn’t protect the weakest. “The architecture failed because it placed itself at the service of political and economic interests with very little regard for social interests.”

● (Jane Jacobs, 1984): “The economic model doesn’t provide niches for people’s differing skills, interests and imaginations, it is not efficient.”

● (Aldo Rossi): “Building a city is a collective effort.” [empower the people]

● Post-crash, Iceland’s birthrate has increased and children are happier.

● “Trust is about participation.” Better institutions, social justice, equity and public/private relationships.

● Zurich: They used 4 hot air balloons to indicate the height and bulk of a proposed tower development, prior to public submissions being received on the proposal.

[In evidence, at Dunedin, Betterways Advisory said it couldn't afford to provide a height indicator at 41 Wharf St - and where do you get balloons from anyway, it asked.... Mr Rodgers (Betterways), we know, took his mother-in-law ballooning in Germany recently. Perhaps he could have made a stopover in the Mackenzie Country on his way home.]

### architecturenow.co.nz 25 Mar 2013
Massimo Santanicchia visits New Zealand
By Stephen Olsen
Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter has won high praise from Reykjavik-based architect Massimo Santanicchia for the “observable scaffolding” it is providing for an area in transition.
Santannichia knows a thing or two about making waterfront spaces more accessible from sparking a design revival at the harbour’s edge of the world’s northernmost capital last year, within the context of an award-winning programme known as the Meanwhile projects.
Santanicchia has also been drawing audiences to hear his views on the ways in which Iceland’s largest city is embracing a more human scale of urbanism in the wake of the financial crash.
Read more

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Hordur Torfason followed with a punchy impassioned delivery, spoken with a run of crowd scenes and peaceful protest images repeating behind him.

In describing post-crash Reykjavik as a scene of ferment and healing, Torfason took us through specific mechanisms for the peaceful revolution that has worldwide and local application – hear that, Dunedin.

Shortly, Torfason will head to workshops in Cypress. The following interview (2011) covers the gist of his lecture.

An outstanding multi-talented individual, he told his story from the age of 21 (1966), of how he grew the personal confidence and expertise (“proving talent”) to lead the people of a city and a nation to overturn the Icelandic Government and jail the bankers. He said Parliament has almost lost all respect amongst all Icelanders. Nevertheless, there is a bill in passage to make Iceland a Safe Haven for journalists, whistleblowers, international media – protected by law.

● He maintains the role of the artist is to criticise, that criticism is a form of love: “We have to use reason, cultural roots, feelings and the precious gifts of life – our creativity”, to ensure human rights aren’t undermined by economic growth and politics.

● “It’s about learning every week, every day, new sides of corruption,” he said. “Inequality is a tool for extortion, a way to maintain The System.”

● Inequality won’t be removed by conventional systems: “If you want to move a graveyard, don’t expect the inhabitants to help you.”

● “The internet has to be protected to dislodge the monster.”

● “One big party owns one big newspaper for Iceland.” According to that paper there was no crash.

● The key word is AWARENESS. The silence of government was upsetting to the people; it meant the people used silence as a mirror to the government and politicians, to protest their rights. The cohesiveness and cleverness of the protest, the silent revolution, achieved 100% success. “They the media won’t tell you [the rest of the world] about it.”

● “Stick together and use the internet.” Make Plan A, B, C, D, E. Protest by peaceful revolution v Arrogance.

● Just 25 people from around the world are responsible for the crash, and one of them was the leader of Iceland’s national bank.

Hordur Torfason (Juan Carlos Monedero, June 2011)

### grapevine.is August 4, 2011
You Cannot Put Rules On Love
An Interview With Hordur Torfason by Paul Fontaine

“I tell people, ‘I’m not demonstrating. I’m fighting for a better life.’ I think aloud, ask questions, seek answers. I knew there was corruption in this country. But I never thought in my wildest dreams that the banks would crash. We have been told lie after lie after lie, and people just accept them. They say ‘þetta reddast’ ['it'll all work out'], until it affects them personally, and then they come screaming.”

The 2008 economic collapse of Iceland would send Hordur’s life path in a whole new direction—one that would take him beyond the bounds of even his own country.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Chongqing, Southwest China

### news.xinhuanet.com | English.news.cn 2013-01-26 21:27:26
Chongqing sets new roadmap in post-Bo Xilai era
CHONGQING, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) — Chongqing’s municipal government vowed Saturday it would shake off the impacts of the Bo Xilai scandal and make law-abiding governance the priority alongside further reform. Huang Qifan, mayor of the metropolis in southwest China, described 2012 as an “extremely extraordinary year” for Chongqing’s development in his report on the work of the municipal government, which was delivered to the 4th Chongqing Municipal People’s Congress.

The local legislature convened its annual session on Saturday with aims to outline the city’s future blueprint for the next five years. The mayor said the government has endeavoured to maintain steady economical and social development despite the severe toll of the incidents involving Bo Xilai, with the city recording an annual economic growth of 13.6 percent. “It turned out that Chongqing citizens have weathered storms and withstood ordeals,” he said.

The government published the full text of its work report, in which it placed governing in accordance with the Constitution and the law as a main focus for this year, while references to Chongqing’s previous high-profile crackdowns on organised crimes are notably absent. In 2009, when Bo Xilai was the CPC (Communist Party of China) chief of Chongqing, the city launched a massive anti-crime campaign, prioritising fighting local mafia-style gangs. Though Bo and Chongqing’s police were credited with reducing crime, concerns were raised about abuses of power and the neglect of due legal process.

The government should rule in accordance with the law, and “no organisation or individual has the privilege to overstep the Constitution and the law,” the work report said. A power reshuffle in this session is set to usher in new local leaders, higher requirements are posed for the municipal government to further intensify reform, Huang told the lawmakers, adding that improvement to work style should be made following the central leadership’s call for eradicating bureaucracy and formalism in December.

Officials in Chongqing are urged to remain low-key and down to earth, talk less and work more to better serve the people.
Read more

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“Amazing city… but without spirit… is a City with many construction. Don’t have the beauty of Brasilia… is a new city of construction.” –Cidade_Branca (architect) at SkyscaperCity CHONGQING | Projects & Construction (2.11.07 03:36 AM)

Wikipedia: Chongqing

“One river is naturally brown from the silt, the other is normal dark blue.”
–the spliff fairy at SkyscraperCity (28.2.13 01:54 PM)

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### nytimes.com September 26, 2011
Built in a Dirty Boom, China’s Biggest City Tries to Go Green
By Coco Liu – ClimateWire
CHONGQING, China — Wandering around in downtown Chongqing, it is hard to imagine that this is a city that is going green. Vehicles clog roads in every direction. Construction cranes stretch to the horizon. And huge posters displaying locally produced industrial goods show where the city’s exploding economic growth is coming from. But Chongqing (population 28,846,200) is more than meets the eye. After living with acid rain and toxic smog for decades, the city has been scrambling for ways to clean up the air. It is also overhauling its power-hungry economy and rebuilding it on a base of industries that use less energy.

Chongqing isn’t alone on such a transformation path. It is one of several pilot provinces and cities that Chinese leaders picked last year in an attempt to find a low-carbon growth model that can be spread to the rest of the nation. Experts attribute this new Chinese desire to the fact that China’s environment and natural resources can no longer afford the blights of heavily polluting, energy-intensive growth. Moreover, there is growing pressure from the outside world to reduce emissions.

Chongqing, controlled demolition 30.8.12

Cities will play a major role in that effort. During the next 20 years, more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions are estimated to come from the developing world’s cities, and more than half of that will come from Chinese cities, says Michael Lindfield, a lead urban development specialist at the Asian Development Bank. “So the importance of making Chinese cities energy-efficient is really a global issue, not just a Chinese issue,” Lindfield added.

But none of this comes easily. For one, it is hard for cities to uproot decades-old economic foundations. In addition, cities risk revenue losses. Energy-guzzling factories that are shut down, in many cases, can’t be immediately offset by low-carbon industries that are still in their nascent stage. Moreover, the switch from traditional industries to green businesses claims jobs, at least for a short term. While cement makers can hire people with few skills, solar panel producers can’t.

Chongqing [became] one of the nation’s industrial hubs. It is China’s biggest producer of motorcycles. It leads in aluminum production. Every day, containers of made-in-Chongqing steel, chemicals and machinery are loaded on cargo ships and then sent from here to destinations along the Yangtze River. All this came at a heavy price.

Data from the World Bank showed that in the early 2000s, one-third of crops in the Chongqing area had been damaged by acid rain — the result of sulfur dioxide and other industrial pollutants. Breathing here became a dangerous thing to do. The World Bank reported that in 2004, residents in Chongqing were inhaling six times more lung cancer-causing pollutants than the World Health Organization considers safe.

“The city was always enveloped by fog and smog,” explained Li, the local economist. The mountain terrain around it helped concentrate Chongqing’s murky air, he said, “but pollution from heavy industries was the key.”
Read more

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Chongqing Planning and Exhibition Centre. The city model shows a concept idea of the future of Chongqing. Most important skyscrapers aren’t added until they have a definitive design. –z0rg at SkyscraperCity CHONGQING | Projects & Construction (6.8.06 09:32 PM)

100 towers taller than 200m including 20 supertalls in one city.
Chongqing 200+ metre List –z0rg at SkyscraperCity (6.7.08 10:05 AM)

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[ODT] The project was being advanced on their behalf by Betterways, of which Ms Jing Song was also a director.

### ODT Online Sat, 23 Mar 2013
Betterways, Diamond Heights link
By Chris Morris
DUNEDIN — The construction company linked to Dunedin’s proposed $100 million waterfront hotel is building the tallest tower in western China. The building will be the tallest for the time being, at least. It has been confirmed the company linked to Dunedin’s proposed hotel is Diamond Heights Construction Engineering Co Ltd, which is based in Chongqing, China, and employs more than 1000 staff. The company is owned by Ping Cao, who together with wife Jing Song, of Queenstown, wants to build Dunedin’s five-star hotel on industrial land at 41 Wharf St.

While it was said Diamond Heights would not be directly involved in construction of Dunedin’s hotel – should consent to proceed be granted – Mr Cao and Ms Song planned to fund it together and contract a New Zealand company to build it.

Mr Cao’s company is responsible for the construction of the 65-storey Shangri-la Hotel in Chongqing, which at 290m high will, when completed, be nearly three times the height of Dunedin’s proposed hotel. It was almost finished, with only the exterior cladding to be added, and was an impressive sight when visited by Betterways Advisory Ltd director Steve Rodgers last year, he told the Otago Daily Times.
The company was also involved in other projects in China, including two sprawling mixed-use developments comprising hotels, other commercial buildings and housing.
Read more

Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts is said to be Asia Pacific’s leading luxury hotel group. Four Shangri-La hotels are projected for Chongqing.
Image: businesstraveller.asia

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Related Posts and Comments:
16.3.13 Hotel: COC jollies and sweet cherry pie
23.1.13 Proposed hotel: Council and submitters await detailed information
28.12.12 ‘Low-rises are great for the community and the residents’
24.12.12 A Christmas Tale
21.12.12 Proposed hotel – ODT graphic indicates building height
19.12.12 Hearing for proposed hotel – competencies, conflicts of interest?
16.12.12 Proposed Dunedin Hotel #height
10.12.12 Proposed hotel, 41 Wharf St – “LEARNING FROM LAS VEGAS”
7.12.12 Proposed hotel – Truescape shenanigans
6.12.12 Dunedin Hotel – revised design
2.12.12 Roy Rogers and Trigger photographed recently at Dunedin
26.11.12 Proposed hotel, 41 Wharf Street – indicative landscape effects
20.11.12 City planner’s report recommends against consent for hotel
10.11.12 Dunedin Hotel, 41 Wharf Street (LUC 2012-212)
4.10.12 DUNEDIN: We’re short(!) but here is some UK nous…
8.9.12 Waterfront Hotel #Dunedin (Applicant names?)
7.9.12 Waterfront hotel: DCC to notify resource consent application
23.6.12 Mis(t)apprehension: website visits, not bookings?
16.5.12 Dunedin Hotel

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Hotel: COC jollies and sweet cherry pie

LUC 2012-212 Betterways Advisory Limited
41 Wharf Street, Dunedin

507 submissions were received following notification of the application, 457 in opposition, 43 in support, and seven were neutral in their stance.

How high is 96.300 metres. How rank is the design.
How sunk is public access to full assessment of environmental effects (AEE).

Christchurch is building low.

The Dunedin stadium (named for the company the Commerce Commission recently described as misleading and deceptive in their marketing) has not been tested by a large earthquake or swarm. It stands on land prone to liquefaction.

The proposed hotel and apartment complex (28 storeys) – a tall building – will stand on land prone to liquefaction.

Is there sense or cents driving this. Offshore bling.

The Minister for Tourism, Pokies and Convention Centres is John Key PM.
Tourism lives in the second tier economy, mostly, brashly, at Queenstown Lakes.

Dark suits of Chamber want some o’ that sweet cherry pie.
How will it come.

Related Posts and Comments:
23.1.13 Proposed hotel: Council and submitters await detailed information
28.12.12 ‘Low-rises are great for the community and the residents’
24.12.12 A Christmas Tale
21.12.12 Proposed hotel – ODT graphic indicates building height
19.12.12 Hearing for proposed hotel – competencies, conflicts of interest?
16.12.12 Proposed Dunedin Hotel #height
10.12.12 Proposed hotel, 41 Wharf St – “LEARNING FROM LAS VEGAS”
7.12.12 Proposed hotel – Truescape shenanigans
6.12.12 Dunedin Hotel – revised design
2.12.12 Roy Rogers and Trigger photographed recently at Dunedin
26.11.12 Proposed hotel, 41 Wharf Street – indicative landscape effects
20.11.12 City planner’s report recommends against consent for hotel
10.11.12 Dunedin Hotel, 41 Wharf Street (LUC 2012-212)
4.10.12 DUNEDIN: We’re short(!) but here is some UK nous…
8.9.12 Waterfront Hotel #Dunedin (Applicant names?)
7.9.12 Waterfront hotel: DCC to notify resource consent application
23.6.12 Mis(t)apprehension: website visits, not bookings?
16.5.12 Dunedin Hotel

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Images: Cherry Pie, WiseGeek (top). ‘Cherry Pie service’ (redraw), from Cherry Pie (Remastered), last.fm

New SimCity or DCC strategy and development team

Comment received.

Anonymous
Submitted on 2013/03/09 at 12:00 pm

I think he should give them a computerized virtual environment where they can be kept busy designing and implementing their perfect virtual world without causing any actual cost or damage to our city. – JimmyJones

Timing! For around a hundred Dunedin City Ratepayer Dollars those council ‘urban designers’ could implement JimmyJones’ suggestion with the latest version of SimCity:

### Stuff Online Last updated 05:00 09/03/2013
World’s greatest urban planner
SimCity: The Best Urban-Planning Simulation Ever
By Farhad Manjoo
http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/games/8401339/Worlds-greatest-urban-planner

[ends]

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Like in real life, your city’s resources are now finite. –Farhad Manjoo

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Phil Cole on the High Street Cable Car

### ODT Online Wed, 13 Feb 2013
Opinion
Cable car project has popular aims
By Phillip Cole
Achieving an 86% positive response to the recent online ODT poll – ”`Would you like to see a cable car operating up High St?” – was a pleasant, but not surprising, result for the Dunedin Cable Car Trust. From the 994 votes cast, 852 were in favour. The votes reflect the opinion of just under 1% of Dunedin’s population, but it is enough to give us encouragement. Recreating the cable car on High St creates enormous challenges. To overcome these, the trust needs to be pragmatic and innovative to make sure Dunedin is left with an asset rather than a liability. To this end, the trust has spent a lot of time developing a project that will appeal to, and have the support of, a majority.
Some, including those in support of the cable car, are still under the misconception money for the project will come from the Dunedin City and Otago Regional Councils. However, the first matter agreed was that the trust was not going to ask the councils for a cent. We want to create a project the people of Dunedin and further afield can get behind and feel part of. Those who don’t want to support the project would be under no financial obligation to do so.
Read more + Images

● Phillip Cole is chairman of the Dunedin Cable Car Trust (est. 23 July 2008)

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Dunedin had the first cable car system outside of the United States opening in 1881. San Francisco Municipal Railway became the sole operator of cable car service in the world with the closure of the Mornington line in Dunedin on 2 March 1957.

Related Posts and Comments:
15.1.13 Return of High Street cable car
23.12.11 High Street cable car update
27.8.10 Invitation to ALL #High St Cable Car
25.11.09 High Street cable car
23.11.09 High Street Cable Car a possibility
19.10.09 Cable Car Meeting @Dunedin

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Roy Rogers and Trigger photographed recently at Dunedin

Source: ODT Online 2.12.12 [screenshot]

Peter McIntosh takes a great shot. Touching! This was just before old Trigger was led out to paddock and shot. Since processed as pet food.

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Related Posts and Comments:
26.11.12 Proposed hotel, 41 Wharf Street – indicative landscape effects
20.11.12 City planner’s report recommends against consent for hotel
10.11.12 Dunedin Hotel, 41 Wharf Street (LUC 2012-212)
8.9.12 Waterfront Hotel #Dunedin (Applicant names?)
7.9.12 Waterfront hotel: DCC to notify resource consent application
16.5.12 Dunedin Hotel

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Trigger led a double life:

Source: ODT Online 21.11.12 [screenshot - detail]

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Proposed hotel, 41 Wharf Street – indicative landscape effects

The following images (scans of scans…) were supplied by Madeleine Lamont in submission on application LUC-2012-212. The text of Madeleine’s submission has been lightly edited for posting. Her submission as lodged (No. 422) can be viewed here: Submissions 401 to 509 (PDF, 6.9 MB).

1. View from Mornington Park, off Eglinton Rd between Stafford and High Sts

2. (zoom) View from Mornington Park, off Eglinton Rd

3. View from Bellevue St, Belleknowes, just below Highgate

4. View from Adam St, near Russell St, City Rise

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Submission to Dunedin City Council
Re: Public Notice of application for Resource Consent Section 95A Resource Management Act 1991
Resource Consent Application No: LUC-2012-212
Name of Applicant: Betterways Advisory Limited
Location of Site: 41 Wharf Street, Dunedin, being the land legally described as
Lot 3 Deposited Plan 25158, held in Computer Freehold
Register OT17A/1107.

I submit in the strongest terms, that resource consent for the building of the proposed hotel structure on the above site, NOT BE GRANTED because of the structure’s significant, detrimental effects on the city landscape.

If the applicant had had the courtesy to supply comprehensive spatial design drawings of this structure in the context of the whole city, it would be obvious to all how inappropriate in SCALE this structure is. At 96m in elevation, the structure overbears the entire city and harbour basin, obstructing the entire city centre’s experience of the harbour, the peninsula and Dunedin’s nestling hills, offering an absurd conflict with the human scale and nature of both the historic and current character of city structures and city activities.

Of greatest concern are the western and eastern elevations of the structure. I submit Photo 1 taken from the lookout in Mornington Park, a view celebrated by Dunedin artists numerous times over the years, by visitors to the city and of course, by the hundreds of Dunedin households. The approximate silhouette of the proposed structure is drawn in to show the obstructive nature and ‘selfish’ size and position of the hotel. The scale of the building is completely inappropriate. Photo 2 is from the same position, zoomed in and marked with the Wharf St railway lighting tower measured at 35m used to indicate the dominance of the proposed 96.3m hotel structure. The eastern elevation from the peninsula suburbs too, will experience the overscale of the building against the city and hill suburbs.

Photo 3 taken, on zoom from Bellevue Street, Belleknowes, again includes the structure’s silhouette scaled off the marked rail light tower. If the cladding of the proposed tower is mainly glass, with it being so high above the city, the western sun will create issues of sun strike on roads leading down from the suburbs, and obviously, serious effects and obstruction to the views enjoyed by thousands of households.

Photo 4 is from lower down the Belleknowes spur, from Adam Street, with an estimated, but conservative profile (photo lacks a known structure to measure off) drawn. Again the aesthetic values and scale of the harbour basin are entirely offended by an ill considered structure.

What concerns me most about this application for resource consent to build an inappropriate structure (by position and scale), is the inadequacy of the supplied application documents to present the structure in the context of the city. Widely published images are fantasy, such as an elevated, high angle view from well above the harbour, attempting to diminish the perceived size of the structure. The only humans to view the structure from this angle, position and elevation may be those wealthy enough to, by helicopter. These images are notable for their lack of contextual structures that make, in fact, the character of Dunedin. Buildings of 2, 3 or more storeys set the scale appropriate for development and are absent from the application documents precisely to obscure the real affect this structure will have on the city’s landscape and its aesthetic values. Design consultancy information only focuses on the very immediate surroundings and contains no spatial plan for this giant structure in the context of the city. I have attempted to show how 120 degrees of the city centre and its hill suburbs will have their harbour and peninsula views and joy of place seriously obstructed. The peninsula suburbs will view a structure absurdly contradicting the city structures and rounded hill suburbs. All incoming transport links, as a special feature of this city, enjoy delightful revelation of the ‘great little city’, its harbour and the waters of the pacific. These heartening views enjoyed by all, citizen and visitor, will be irretrievable spoiled and dominated by a tower designed (and possibly built) for a city the scale of Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur or Singapore.

Lastly, the attempt at this sort of inappropriate development is an affront to the careful planning [of] the city’s forefathers to create an egalitarian community enjoying the delightful natural environment Dunedin offers. The proposed structure stands at 96 m. This is only a matter of metres below the elevation of much of the Green Belt. Jubilee Park is at a 100m elevation. The Green Belt designed and implemented so long ago and maintained for the benefit of all, is carefully placed so that wherever a person stands in the city centre they can look up the hills to the sky line and see only green, the suburbs beyond obscured by the angle of view. This creates a very special intimate city, a human scaled city, for the benefit and edification of those living or visiting here. This, in conjunction with historical character (now lost in Christchurch), a rich, intelligent, creative and industrious community is what makes Dunedin a destination, a special, memorable place that with sympathetic development will continue to attract visitors and citizens who will not find the likes, elsewhere in the world. Structures like the proposed hotel are notable for being the same the world over. In being built it will change the very character of the place visitors will be seeking to experience.

I submit in the strongest terms that the Dunedin City Council turn down this application for resource consent and I suggest that the non compliance of this application to the requirements of the Resource Management Act to protect the amenity, aesthetic and cultural values and wellbeing of the people of Dunedin will bring this matter to the Environment Court.

Yours sincerely

Madeleine Lamont
B. Landscape Architecture (Hons), Lincoln University

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Compare these indicative images to those prepared by Truescape of Christchurch for the Applicant:

LUC-2012-212 12. Viewpoint booklet (PDF, 3.4MB)
This document is a scanned copy of the application for resource consent

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Related Posts:
20.11.12 City planner’s report recommends against consent for hotel
10.11.12 Dunedin Hotel, 41 Wharf Street (LUC 2012-212)
8.9.12 Waterfront Hotel #Dunedin (Applicant names?)
7.9.12 Waterfront hotel: DCC to notify resource consent application
16.5.12 Dunedin Hotel

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The Applicant, Betterways Advisory Limited, gets one and a half days for presentation to the hearing committee (Cr Colin Weatherall, Cr Andrew Noone, Cr Kate Wilson, and independent commissioner John Lumsden). Submitters have been allowed ten minutes each. Written communication from City Planning makes no time allowance for submitters wishing to use experts.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Community halls of small-town New Zealand

Michele Frey and Sara Newman
Photographs John Maillard and John O’Malley

November 2012
RRP $45
Paperback, 260pp, 235 x 235mm Full Colour
ISBN 978-1-927145-37-1

Canterbury University Press
http://www.cup.canterbury.ac.nz/catalogue/saturday_night.shtml

Yeah, it’s great being out with the jokers
When the jokers are sparking and bright,
And its great giving cheek to the sheilas
Down the hall on a Saturday night …
Peter Cape, 1958

On a Saturday Night is a warm and colourful celebration of the strength and spirit of small towns all around New Zealand. From Whakapara in the north to Mossburn in the South, community halls have been the focal point of small towns for as long as the towns have been on the map.

These halls have hosted school classrooms, general elections, stag parties, birthday parties, film screenings, Rabbiters’ Balls, flag euchre evenings, farewells and welcome-home parties for servicemen from both world wars, memorial events for those who did not return, farm auctions, clearing sales, weddings, Christmas parties, Civil Defence teams, mayoral celebrations, church services …

Some halls have been demolished and rebuilt over the decades, other have been lovingly restored several times and are still going strong. Some halls have been transported on the backs of trucks to new locations as towns have grown and changed. Fires and floods have taken their toll in more than a few cases.

Michele Frey and Sara Newman visited these halls with photographers John Maillard (North Island) and John O’Malley (South Island) to talk to the locals and try to capture the essence of what each hall has meant – and means – to its community. In these stories and pictures they have recorded an aspect of New Zealand’s unique culture that seems to be passing into history.

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Michele Frey is a Strategic Planner (Natural Environment and Recreation) for Opus International Consultants Ltd in Napier. She has always had a strong affinity with the notion of community, and seized eagerly upon the idea of producing a book on small-town halls, with the opportunity it offered to gain insights into the dynamics of small New Zealand communities. Along the way she developed some lifelong friendships. This is Michele’s third book for Canterbury University Press.

Sara Newman grew up in a small town and knew all about the importance of community halls. She has had articles published in magazines in New Zealand and abroad, including Takahe and New Zealand Memories. While a member of the South Island Writers’ Group she won the Ngaio Marsh Trophy for fiction in 2009. Her work is included in several anthologies and her family history Living Between the Lines has been read on National Radio. She loved visiting the halls and meeting the people involved with them.

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### radionz.co.nz Friday 26 October 2012
Country Life
with Carol Stiles, Susan Murray, Cosmo Kentish-Barnes & Duncan Smith
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/countrylife/20121026

21:18 On a Saturday Night
Sara Newman talks about a new book she has co-written with Michelle Frey about the community halls of small town New Zealand. (10′08″)
Audio | Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3 | Embed

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Stadium crowd, Friday 19 October – how many?

Otago v Tasman (ITM Cup)

Received today.

Calvin Oaten says (via email):
“In Sat. ODT it credited the Friday night game crowd at 6780. These are a scan of the crowd by Jeremy. Can you see any more than about 2000?”

Rugby: Otago gets up to make final
http://www.odt.co.nz/sport/rugby/231255/rugby-otago-gets-make-final

Images [JPGs] supplied by Jeremy Belcher. Screenshot: What if?

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Stadium: ideas for real photos

Images: ©2012 Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin Railway Station clocktower

### ch9.co.nz July 5, 2012 – 7:06pm
The view from the Railway Station clocktower
The Dunedin Railway Station is an Edwardian monument to the era of rail, and the nineteenth century dreams of the city’s early inhabitants. And inside its clocktower are some very cool spaces the public seldom gets to see. Nine Local News squeezed through some tight manholes and got very dusty to bring those spaces to you.
Video

Image: Channel 9

Built in Dunedin: historic buildings and their stories

Early this morning a new blog was launched by D.R. (David) Murray, Dunedin-based archivist, historian and musician.

The blog will look at the design of buildings (existing and demolished) and the careers of their architects, but it will be as much about social and other aspects of history.

Built in Dunedin

“Why write it? Hasn’t plenty been published already? Well, there are some good books out there, but many fascinating buildings still haven’t been written about, and research keeps bringing up new (and sometimes contradictory!) information about the more familiar ones. A good old-fashioned trawl through archives is still rewarding, and through the internet many resources that were hard to find or slow to search decades ago are now much easier to access.”

The inaugural post features Hallenstein’s New Zealand Clothing Factory at 18-20 Dowling Street.

“Architect David Ross was a Scotsman who worked in Dunedin from 1862 and the factory was one of his last projects here before he moved to Auckland. Ross designed some of Dunedin’s most familiar buildings, including the Congregational Church in Moray Place and the older part of the Otago Museum. Although he sits a little in the shadow of the famous Mr Lawson, he remains the only Dunedin architect to have become a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects.”

We look forward to further building entries elaborating Dunedin’s richly diverse cultural heritage. Recommended – follow.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DCC: Standard issue for ALL staff and hangers-on

To be worn with corporate wash-and-wear crimplene pants. All heavy neck jewellery is banned, removing distraction from weak chins.

Thanks to Source.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

SH88 realignment – information

Comment received from daseditor
Submitted on 2012/05/26 at 8:18 pm

[24.5.12] Edmund Anscombe and the Anzac Avenue Trees

With your discussion of the alignment I hope you’ll also take the time to read the article above on the Anzac Avenue trees. The alignment construction looks as though it has severely affected a critical area of the city’s landscape heritage which is linked to the work of prominent architect Edmund Anscombe.

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Images supplied by Anonymous*

The image dates relate to Google Earth snapshots: 2005 January, 2006 March, 2009 July, 2011 January, and 2011 September. 2004 is available but heavy cloud cover obscures the view.

SH88 – Google Earth images including the quarry and Logan Park sports field.

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SH88 – The same images cropped to SH88 entry and exit points.

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SH88 – The Google Maps image which marks the road.

*Several contributors at this website use the title Anonymous.

Related Post with Links:
25.5.12 SH88 realignment costs (injunction)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin shootout: mafia bosses

This city is a warm, tender-hearted place. It attracts honeymoon hotels.

STADIUM COST

Cull on tape yesterday
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/208611/dunedin-stadium-posts-19m-loss
“The financial funding and operating model of the stadium was put in place to convince people to build it,” he said. “Clearly, it was optimistic.”

Farry on tape last night
http://www.ch9.co.nz/content/stadium-funding-debate-raises-ire

Farry today at ODT
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/208857/culls-comments-anger-farry
Mr Farry said the mayor “is quite entitled to his opinion and to be critical. What angers me is that he has stooped to innuendo and baseless allegations”.

Mr Farry said the CST’s integrity had been “impinged” by the mayor’s criticism.[...]Asked if he was considering taking legal action against the mayor, Mr Farry said he was not. “But this should not be interpreted by Mr Cull as a free licence. There is a limit to anybody’s patience and tolerance.”

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DEFAMATION

Today at ODT (Link)
Mr Cull yesterday issued a statement in response to the ODT article which detailed the statement of claim of Otago Rugby Football Union board members Wayne Graham and Laurie Mains, who are each seeking more than $500,000 in damages from the mayor over allegations of defamation.

Yesterday at ODT
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/208692/graham-mains-each-seek-500000-plus-damages

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Hocken Gallery

Hocken Gallery, Hocken Library 21 April – 18 August 2012
90 Anzac Avenue, Dunedin
Phone 03 479 8871
Open weekdays: 9am- 5pm, Tuesday: 9am – 9pm
Saturday: 9am – 12 noon
www.library.otago.ac.nz/hocken

Find out more about this exhibition at
http://library.otago.ac.nz/hocken/exhibitions
Take a glimpse at what Hocken has been up to recently at
thehockenblog.blogspot.com
View thousands of paintings at http://digital.otago.ac.nz
Search 33,000 photographs and purchase prints online at
http://hockensnapshop.ac.nz

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More about the exhibition at ODT Online
http://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/arts/205957/call-running-tide

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Call for photographs or building plans – Standard Building, 201 Princes St

During a previous ownership, the historic Standard Insurance Building in the Exchange had its street elevation stripped of all decorative plaster detail. Fortunately for the city the current building owner, Exchange Renaissance Ltd, has honoured to reinstate the lost ornament.

Plaster craft specialist Daniel Pollard of Historic Building Conservation has been engaged to render the work.

The Standard Building at 201 Princes St is located between the old National Bank and the old Bank of New Zealand. A call for historical photographs of the original Standard Insurance Building facade has gone out to inform the facade reinstatement project.

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A small number of historical photographs have been located, including the two images published here with the building owner’s permission. However, the photographs obtained provide an insufficient level of detail to successfully design and render the capitals of the arched windows.

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The style of the building and the historical photographs together suggest a Corinthian-style capital was used orginally; the pilasters being square further define the shape. However, many different styles of Corinthian capitals are apparent on buildings of this era, therefore photographs of the Standard Building prior to 1969 are needed.

• Someone may have taken photographs of the old BNZ and National banks that include a view of the Standard Building’s capitals.

• Someone may hold original plans or records of the building, or know someone who was commissioned to remove the capitals in 1969.

If so, please contact Daniel Pollard, Historic Building Conservation, with your information.
Email: info@buildingconservation.co.nz
Phone: 03 489 0930
Mobile: 021 047 4007

Related Post:
24.10.11 Former Standard Insurance building, 201 Princes St, Dunedin

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Rattray St buildings up for full demolition say McLauchlan and Darling

Bulldozer-city tactics again, Boys? Look what happened to the bluestone wall in the High Street car park, to be retained by conditions of an archaeological authority—last photographed by ODT this summer, in a state of neglect with weeds all over it (having been ‘nudged’ with an excavator during construction of the car park). That should have been a prosecution. Not sure you can get off the same hook twice.

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### ODT Online Tue, 31 Jan 2012
Demolition set to resume, but HPT says authority required
By Debbie Porteous
Demolition work is due to restart soon on on two adjoining buildings in Rattray St, Dunedin, more than a year after the roof of one of them, the 136-year-old Barrons building, collapsed. Stuart McLauchlan, a director of the Scenic Circle Hotel Group, which owns the N. & E.S. Paterson building beside the [Barron] building, confirmed yesterday that demolition on the two buildings, which share a common wall, should begin within in the next few weeks. But the Historic Places Trust says an archeological authority needs to be done, at least on the [Barron] building, before any demolition work begins.
Read more

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Urban blight in the hands of expensive men.

People love *cough* the frontage to Scenic Circle’s High Street car park (here, seen from behind) – the architect more than completely failed. More joy for Rattray St if this model is followed; the High Street car park is one of the worst pot-holing disasters in the central city. Not a desirable neighbour for the fully refurbished and earthquake-strengthened, historic Bing Harris building across the road.

Not known for his good taste,
“Mr McLauchlan said the section where the N. & E.S. Paterson building stood would be turned into a car park, and an entrance built with a facade similar to that of the other entrance to the car park, in High St.”

The Southern Cross (now owned by the Scenic Circle Hotel Group) greatly enhanced the townscape appearance of Rattray St in the twentieth century. Tui. [Since this shot was taken the Barron building has been lowered to two floors only, and the roof of the N. & E.S. Paterson building has been removed.]

The buildings for demolition at 173 and 175 Rattray St are both located in the North Princes Street/Moray Place/Exchange Townscape Precinct (TH03).

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Related Posts:
12.4.11 Public outrage – SHAME on those re$pon$ible for building neglect
4.3.11 Reaction to another instance of unthinking ad-hocism from City Hall
19.2.11 Owner of Dragon Café/Barron Building has lodged an application…
26.1.11 D Scene: Honour heritage
22.1.11 SAVE Dragon Café / Barron Building – Sign the Online Petition
13.1.11 Barron Building and Rattray Street
13.1.11 Banks, Barron & Co Building Collapse pics

25.8.11 180 Rattray St, Dunedin: Proposed historic building demolition…

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

High Street cable car update

“We are realistic in that it is not just a question of getting it built; it is a question of keeping it funded after it is built.” -Phil Cole

### ODT Online Fri, 23 Dec 2011
Cable car plans shared
By Hamish McNeilly
Members of the trust aiming to resurrect the High St cable car have met Dunedin City Council officials to discuss their plans. Dunedin Cable Car Trust chairman Phil Cole confirmed a meeting with council representatives had taken place this week, but said the trust was not asking the council for financial assistance. The trust was asked to submit on the draft spatial plan and the transportation strategy for next year, and “this is encouraging”, the Dunedin-based transportation engineer said.
Read more

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Old cinematography of Dunedin Cable Cars 1930 to 1950. (7:33)

Cable Car Terminus, Mornington, Dunedin, N.Z. (postcard)

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Related Posts:
27.8.11 Invitation to ALL #High St Cable Car
25.11.09 High Street cable car
23.11.09 High Street Cable Car a possibility
19.10.09 Cable Car Meeting @Dunedin

Cable Car Links:
http://www.elibrarynz.com/BLOG/WEB-2/Dunedin%20cable%20tramway%20system.htm
http://www.cablecarmuseum.org/archive/Library/Dunedin.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_car_(railway)
http://www.cable-car-guy.com/html/cchow.html
http://www.cablecarmuseum.org/archive/index.html
http://www.nzine.co.nz/views/cablecars.html

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Tomorrow’s fantasy: 12-page story of the stadium, who by and how…

Controversial news, names, myths and exclusions.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Peninsula Art & Craft Auction

Macandrew Bay Primary School is hosting the Peninsula Art and Craft Auction at the Guthrie Pavilion, Shore Street, on Thursday evening, 3 November (see poster for details).

The ticket price includes one complimentary drink and nibbles.
Tickets may also be purchased on the night.

Downloads:
POSTER 2011 rev (PDF, 1.97 MB)
Catalogue with Photos.v2 (PDF, 1.79 MB)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Two architectural images #Dunedin

Images ©2011 Elizabeth Kerr

Views from my Pitt Street apartment during the July snow -
(top) Richardson Building, (below) Zooloogy Building roofscape, Commerce Building, Richardson at left

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Ricardo Bofill’s cement factory

Industrial heritage, exquisite.

Location: Barcelona, Spain

### yatzer.com 26 January 2011
A former Cement Factory is now the workspace and residence of Ricardo Bofill
By Marcia Argyriades
The Cement Factory was discovered in 1973, it was an abandoned cement factory and partially in ruins, comprised of over 30 silos, underground galleries and huge engine rooms; Ricardo Bofill bought it and began renovation works. He identified the program; The Cement Factory was to be used as architectural offices, archives, a model laboratory, and exhibition space, an apartment for him, as well as guest rooms and gardens.

He defined the space by demolishing certain structures, cleaning cement, exposing previously concealed structures and creating the landscape architecture by planting various plants such as eucalyptus, palms, olive trees and cypresses; renovation works lasted nearly two years.

Images courtesy of Ricardo Bofill

“To be an architect means to understand space, to understand space organised by [people], to decipher the spontaneous movements and behaviour of people, and to detect the needs of change that they might unconsciously express. It is essential to track down these issues if we want to contribute with our personal work to the history of architecture.” Ricardo Bofill

Read more

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Then there are all the reasons why “Dunedin” failed to adapt and re-purpose elements of the Maltexo industrial complex in Ward St…
27.1.11 Good-bye to MALTEXO, Ward Street – Dunedin Harbourside
6.2.11 Hurt inside

And why the Barron Building of Rattray St and a few others in the immediate area may be transparently viewed as working examples of ‘demolition by neglect’. We have the list, we have the addresses, we know the names…

12.4.11 Public outrage – SHAME on those re$pon$ible for building neglect
For further posts and comments on the Barron Building, enter “Barron” in the search box at right.

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### radionz.co.nz Sunday, 17 April 2011 8:12am
Insight: Heritage Buildings
When it comes to heritage buildings, there’s no shortage of people who want to keep them standing. Supporters argue they are important to a region’s history. But Dunedin correspondent, Lorna Perry asks should the building’s owner be solely responsible for the cost of heritage or should the public be footing more of the bill?
Audio Ogg Vorbis MP3 (duration: 27′48″)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr