W H I C H ● F O R ● Y O U R ● C O M F O R T
Left by Ken T (via ODT), right by Kent (makers of the retail appliance)
With thanks to the local resident for his comment in Otago Daily Times.
WE VERY MUCH LIKE the Kent Mica 2400W column heater with digital display and happily endorse the smart contemporary design and total product.
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Benson-Pope has been campaigning for re-election to Council on a platform that includes No Asset Sales. Um, “Point of Order” : The council-owned Filleul St car park is For Sale. A contradiction, perhaps, to now support the hotel development on this much used site ?
From a voter/witness who attended the Candidates meeting at Waikouaiti on the evening of 13 September: “David Benson-Pope was probably the worst; used maybe two of his three minutes; said he was opposed to asset sales and sat down.” Link
[click to enlarge]
DCC Webmap – Filleul St car park site starred
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ODT articles:
5.10.16 Positive hotel response, but design concerns
5.10.16 Drilling set to start
4.10.16 Luxury hotel a step closer (with graphic)
Related Posts and Comments:
● 4.10.16 The Demon Duck freak show of partial ‘Civic’ information! Before voting closes! #Dunedin
11.1.16 Un hôtel. Dunedin.
19.8.15 Hotels ? Business ? [DCC lost +++152 fleet vehicles] —Cull in charge of building chicken coops, why ?
1.4.14 HOTEL Town Hall… Another investment group, Daaave’s pals from the communist state?
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
Election Year. This post is offered in the public interest.
*Image framing and pairing by whatifdunedin
*Credit: Mica 2400W column heater with digital display by Kent [kent.co.nz]
What if? Dunedin... 
A hotel in a DCC ghetto-
Yeh Right,
Now the DCC decide to fund the building.
Yeh- You’re Joking,
Wrong. DCC is NOT funding the building.
Prescient Elizabeth, Prescient.
Facebook: OtagoDailyTimes
Ken Taylor | ODT Facebook
Yesterday at 08:32
“Brendon Arbuckle I tried earlier this year to get ORC to team up for a second hotel/their offices/market/portobello aquarium/apartrments/shops/restuarants/ ships provedore and all the things you say…..just like Wellington”
****
Ken Taylor | ODT Facebook
Yesterday at 08:25
“Most of the parking already there is long term lease not public….yes we are keeping the electric vehicle charger!”
Or, The toaster.
Looks like visiting the library will get a whole lot harder. The carpark will vanish into a Trumpian red carpet. Exquisite poor timing for large capex investment. Debt is virtue, isn’t it? Lovely spot though.
Also. Concerts at Town Hall eg The Proms, will result in very poor parking opportunities with Filleul St site privatised.
Can always take a bike.
hahahahahahahahha lol! Fuck that looks like a fucking heater! Whoever designed that building can’t architect for shit!
He’s the man if you want a side-loading toaster.
Thu, 6 Oct 2016
ODT Editorial: Balancing heritage and progress
The public reaction to the new proposal for a five-star hotel in Dunedin seems to be largely positive, but will the project face the same uphill battle of its predecessor? The new proposal comes courtesy of NZ Horizon Hospitality Group Proprietary Ltd. The ”anonymous” principal developer is Tekapo businessman Anthony Tosswill, and the Dunedin frontman and architectural designer is Ken Taylor.
LOWBROW CRAP
Not a very bright interview, D’oh.
Listen to the “ODT hater” of people with design aesthetic and viability concerns:
Thu, 6 Oct 2016
ODTtv: 5-star hotel for Dunedin
Dunedin is finally slated to have a five-star hotel to the joy of many within the business world. Pat Brittenden and Dene MacKenzie look at what’s being offered to Dunedin within this $75 million complex and ask if it’s what the community needs and wants.
Otago Daily Times Published on Oct 5, 2016
Luxury hotel a step closer
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Dave Cannan – The Wash, ODT 6.10.16
DUNEDIN’S NEW HOTEL — LET THE DEBATE BEGIN!
IN opening up this column yesterday for a readers’ debate on the 18-storey, five-star, $75million hotel proposed for the corner of Filleul St and Moray Pl, I wondered if the main objection might be more about the loss of parking rather than the look of the building.
Turns out, it’s a bit of both. Just for the record, there are 130 car parks on this site (not all available to the public), so, yes, given the high value placed on such spaces in the inner city, I expect it to be a major gripe.
Of course, I am also keen for some positive feedback on this project, too, because, despite a couple of reservations (height and shading), I agree a hotel on this site is a great “fit” for the city.
So, what do our readers make of it so far?
First up, Elizabeth writes: “Dear Dave. Maybe I am being selfish, but as a ratepayer and citizen of this city, I am wondering where so many of us are going to park when we go to events at the town hall, Fortune Theatre, Regent Theatre, or eat out at one of the many places in the centre of town? The park across from the town hall is full all day with workers, probably many of them council staff, and at night when there is a special event on, it is always packed.
“Why should visitors get a room in the middle of town for one night? They will go out and take photographs of themselves standing in front of Robbie Burns or the railway station and buy Chinese-made souvenirs of Dunedin or New Zealand. How much will the city really gain from this?”
Annette Milne had this to say: “Another ‘fugly’ hotel being planned
for Dunedin city. Is there no designer or architect out there with some sense of what will sit well and look aesthetically pleasing among our heritage buildings? I’m beginning to think that the answer is a resounding NO! Your comment about a giant toaster did make me laugh, but it is not far from the truth and it will be interesting to see what your other readers think.”
The design was also Julie Adamson’s beef. She rang to say at least the “toaster” looked better than the ill-fated harbourside “glasshouse” but surely it needed to fit in well with the buildings that surround the site. There were “more than enough” heritage buildings (old and recently refurbished), especially in the Vogel St precinct, as examples for the developers to get a much better idea of the desired style for the inner city.
“This is Dunedin, not Auckland,” she said.
This, of course, raises the issue of finding the right balance between old and new, a point well made on the ODT’s Facebook page yesterday by Brendon Arbuckle, who wrote, in part: “… looking around there are plenty of ‘box’-type high buildings within the main street and off it. It’s all well and good having heritage, but it’s also 2016 — time for fresh-looking buildings and if they are ‘box’ shaped, then so be it. And believe it or not, you can actually have a mix of old and new; many cities around the world lready have that.”
Graeme Chesney emailed to suggest I should ask readers, to say in just 50 words, what the building should look like, attaching a photo he took in 2011 of the Pompidou Centre in Paris (opened in 1977), which is a multifaceted library-art museum. He writes:
“What appears to be scaffolding is, in fact, the intentional structural and servicing elements of this marvellous gallery. I reflect on a similar eye-catching building in London or maybe the Sydney Opera House, or BNZ in Wellington, or NZ’s Parliament Building.”
** What building styles do you prefer? . . . the modern “box” (proposed Filleul St hotel), the old (Southern Cross Hotel), the glass skyscraper (ill-fated waterfront hotel) or the innovative (Pompidou Centre, Paris).
[ends]
Study Lawson’s buildings for a year. His stuff is everywhere. It’s in Dunedin’s DNA. Check out Fortune Theatre, round the corner. Design and build a companion piece. Find a bluestone quarry and start swinging a masons hammer. Maybe some Oamaru trim. Deck it out internal, state of the art, go 6 star. Job done. The site deserves a masterpiece. Make a building the tourists will photograph, not a sorry modern coffin. One can dream.
Very nice dream for that precinct. You’re hired!
Why do people like Dene McKenzie not know the difference between questioning the design of the hotel and its appropriateness in a heritage area and the question of whether we should have a new five star hotel?
The argument is not the latter, for most people, it’s the former. Why is it so hard to insist on a good design where everybody is basically happy? Aren’t we allowed to question design anymore?
I am perplexed as to why Dene McKenzie can’t sort out the real issue given his role as a reporter on the ODT.
Do we give a flying dingbat if Toss-will wants to build a property empire with (laundry) money from China.
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“A new five-star hotel in the heart of Dunedin, paid for by Chinese money, is just one part of a wider South Island development plan. But the man at the centre of it all wants to stay out of the spotlight. Chris Morris reports.” (ODT)
If we’re unlucky enough to have Cull de Mayor returned we could be left with an ugly empty hulk across from the Town Hall, and much less public and leased car parking in the CBD. Remember, the DCC lacks the skills and expertise to do anything much in business successfully (apart from selling people cheap cars!).
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
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ELECTION BIDS ARE ELECTION BIDS ARE ELECTION BIDS
–Cull de Mayor
“The man behind Dunedin’s latest five-star hotel bid has a wish list of 12 hotels, costing $500million, he wants to build across the South Island.”
Pah! This is a man who knows not the meaning of ambition.
Me, myself – I haf ze ambition to rival De Beers, zose upstarts, wit’ my network of diamond mines from North Crepe to Ze Pluff and also to Isles de Chat Ham and Orc Land.
Which of us will be successful the first? I issue ze challenge. Furthermore you bi-standing in gaping mouth amaziness, place bets at once before gentlemen of the book aware become of my genius endeavouring.