WHO says ‘heritage rules are too restrictive’ —What’s their agenda in the Heritage City

FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS

St Joseph’s and the Dominican Priory, Smith St [cardcow.com]

‘A new roof for Dunedin’s Dominican Priory, considered one of New Zealand’s most important and at-risk historic buildings, is a big step closer following a $100,000 grant. [The] Dunedin Heritage Fund had committed the money from its 2016-17 budget. The 139-year old priory was built to house the city’s Dominican nuns and provide teaching space for girls. Despite its vast scale and elaborate construction – its floating concrete staircase and double-glazed music room were cutting edge designs in their day – the building received little maintenance over its working life.’ –Gerald Scanlan, Catholic Diocese of Dunedin (ODT)

19.2.16 ODT: Boost for restoration of priory (+ video)
12.5.16 ODT: DCC commits $100,000 to priory restoration
27.6.16 ODT: Priory future gets clean slate

*The Dunedin Heritage Fund is administered by representatives of Dunedin City Council and Heritage New Zealand.

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MORE GOOD NEWS

Dunedin Prison “big-picture project” [dunedinprisontrust.co.nz]

‘The Dunedin Prison Trust has raised about $500,000 to start the first stage of its development programme to return the [old prison] building to its original appearance. […] Last year, the trust lodged a planning application with the Dunedin City Council detailing about $250,000 of restorative work which would return the prison’s exterior to its original 1896 condition. The application included work on the building’s roof and walls, as well as seismic strengthening, work expected to cost another $250,000.’ (ODT)

24.8.16 ODT: Restoration begins on historic prison
2.9.16 ODT: Captive audience for prison project
17.9.16 ODT: Old prison roof being restored

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GOOD NEWS CONTINUES

Dunedin Courthouse [panoramio.com]

‘Refurbishing and strengthening Dunedin’s historic courthouse is expected to cost more than $18 million, according to a building consent approved by the Dunedin City Council. The consent includes detailed designs that council building services manager Neil McLeod says involve some of the most extensive earthquake-strengthening ever undertaken in the city. The plans also show the extent to which the Ministry of Justice plans on returning the building to its former glory.’ (ODT)

10.9.16 ODT: $18m to be spent on court upgrade
29.9.16 ODT: Courthouse restoration set to begin
30.9.16 ODT: Dunedin firm wins courthouse contract

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BAD NEWS

‘The Physio Pool is one of the largest warm water swimming pools in New Zealand and Dunedin’s only therapeutic swimming pool. The temperature is always kept around 35 degrees. We feature wheelchair accessibility, hoist and private changing rooms. The benefits of warm water exercise are tremendous and have an extremely positive impact on the quality of life for all ages. We are open to the public and offer a non-threatening environment for swimming, aqua jogging, individual exercise programmes, or warm water relaxation.’ —physiopool.org.nz

### ODT Online Sat, 1 Oct 2016
Pool heritage status opposed
By Vaughan Elder
The Southern District Health Board is fighting a proposal to classify  Dunedin’s already endangered physio pool site as a heritage building, saying it may have to be demolished as part of a hospital redevelopment. This comes as the Property Council and the University of Otago are set to argue at next week’s  Second Generation Dunedin City District Plan (2GP) hearings that proposed rules aimed at protecting the city’s heritage buildings are too restrictive.
Read more

█ Heritage New Zealand | Otago Therapeutic Pool List No. 7581
Historical information and Heritage significance at http://www.heritage.org.nz/the-list/details?id=7581

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FURTHER BAD NEWS AND PILLOCKS

Criticism of the [second generation district] plan comes after praise in recent times for the council for its proactive approach towards saving the city’s heritage buildings.

### ODT Online Sun, 2 Oct 2016
Heritage rules deemed too restrictive
By Vaughan Elder
The Dunedin City Council’s proposed new heritage rules are too restrictive and property owners should have more freedom to demolish uneconomic heritage buildings, the Property Council says. This comes as Second Generation Dunedin City District Plan (2GP) commissioners are set to hear arguments next week about a new set of rules aimed at protecting the city’s heritage buildings. The University of Otago is also among submitters to have expressed concern about rules,  planner and policy adviser Murray Brass saying they had the potential to  reduce protection by making it more difficult to maintain and use heritage buildings.
A summary on the 2GP website said the changes included addressing the threat of “demolition by neglect” by making it easier to put old buildings to new uses and requiring resource consent for most changes to identified heritage buildings and “character-contributing” buildings within defined heritage precincts.
The new rules have prompted a strong response.
Read more

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FOR HISTORIC HERITAGE

Second Generation District Plan (2GP) – Heritage
Read all Heritage topic documents including reports, evidence and submissions to date at: https://2gp.dunedin.govt.nz/2gp/hearings-schedule/heritage.html

Documents
● Notice of Hearing
● Agenda
● Speaking Schedule – updated 29 September

Council Evidence
● Section 42A report
● Section 42A report addendum

DCC expert evidence
● Statement of evidence of Glen Hazelton [Policy planner – heritage]

█ Download: s42a Heritage Report with appendices (PDF, 5 MB)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Election Year. This post is offered in the public interest.

Carisbrook turnstile building, Neville St | HNZ Category 1 historic place
[filmcameraworkshop.com]

Dunedin Heritage Fund: Latest funding round | recipient building projects

### ODT Online Tue, 20 Oct 2015
Heritage fund contributes to renaissance
By Craig Borley
Another collection of old Dunedin buildings is to get a council cash injection as the city continues its renaissance. The 10 buildings received a combined $113,500 at this month’s meeting of the Dunedin City Council’s heritage fund committee.
Read more + Images

The grants
• Kelsey Yaralla Kindergarten, Trent Ave, North Dunedin: $5000 (earthquake strengthening)
• Golden Leaf International, 16 Manse St: $10,000 (earthquake strengthening)
• Empire Hotel, 395 Princes St: $5500 (earthquake strengthening report, prior to facade restoration)
• Gresham Hotel, 42 Queens Gardens: $20,000 (exterior restoration)
• Former stables, 218 Crawford St – $20,000 (reuse)
• Stafford House, 2 Stafford St – $5000 (fire upgrade)
• Loan and Mercantile Building, 33 Thomas Burns St – $20,000 (facade cleaning and restoration)
• Married quarters, Quarantine Island: $3000 (strengthening)
• Glenfalloch: $5000 (conservation plan update)
• Carpet Court, 115 Cumberland St: $20,000 (reuse)

TOTAL: $113,500

DUNEDIN HERITAGE FUND

The Dunedin City Council and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (now Heritage New Zealand) jointly administer the Dunedin Heritage Fund to support the protection and conservation of Dunedin’s built heritage, as well as the continued use and appreciation of these places by the community.

The Heritage Fund Committee has the ability to make grants or loans to the owner or occupier of any historic place within Dunedin for the purpose of assisting that owner or occupier to manage, maintain or preserve that historic place.

The Dunedin Heritage Fund can provide incentive funding for a wide range of works. These include:

i. Essential repairs, stabilisation or core structural works.
ii. Restoration projects.
iii. Upgrades to code/regulation standards to enable contemporary use of heritage places, eg fire, earthquake, access provisions.
iv. Specific “like with like” material replacement/maintenance projects that protect the integrity of heritage buildings (eg slate or timber shingle roofing; copper gutters/downpipes; wooden joinery; stained glass; stonework; pressed tin ceilings; etc)
v. Preparation of heritage conservation plans.
vi. Emergency or protective works to protect heritage fabric.

Note: Routine maintenance will not normally be a high priority for assistance.

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█ For more information and guidelines for how to apply, go to:
Dunedin Heritage Funding Application (DCC website)

Contacts:
Glen Hazelton, DCC Policy Planner (Heritage) 03 477 4000
Jonathan Howard, HNZ Otago Southland Area Manager 03 477 9871

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin Prison: Community Trust grant for restoration

39 Dunedin Television Published on Sep 17, 2015
Historic prison restoration gets kickstart

● Resource consent granted for conservation and repair
● Funding from Otago Community Trust
● New visitor centre
● Prison tours
● Restaurant for courtyard

### dunedintv.co.nz Thu, 17 Sep 2015
Historic prison restoration gets kickstart
A $90,000 grant is kickstarting the project to restore Dunedin’s historic prison to its former glory. The money will enable the Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust to start exterior repairs. And that means members are finally able to turn their vision into reality.
Ch39 Link

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[click to enlarge]DCC Webmap – 2 Castle Street, former Dunedin Prison [Jan/Feb 2013]

█ Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust

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Related Posts and Comments:
16.9.15 DPAG exhibition talk, Sun 20 Sep —Jonathan Howard on Dunedin 1865
7.9.15 Public petition to save Courthouse for courts use
30.8.15 DPAG exhibition | Dunedin 1865: A City Rises…
23.8.15 1865 Dunedin —Heritage Festival 2015 ‘The Open City’ … 29 Aug
23.8.15 1865 Dunedin —Heritage Festival 2015 Shoreline Trail launch
11.7.15 Dunedin Law Courts “an incredible historic building” –Minister
14.5.15 Russell Lund on Ministry closure of Dunedin Law Courts
14.5.15 Justice at Dunedin
2.5.15 Ministry serves INJUSTICE for Dunedin Courthouse #HistoricHeritage
28.2.13 Tour the old prison in March (2013)
20.9.12 Dunedin Prison
6.6.12 Dunedin Prison purchased by trust
18.10.11 Dunedin Prison Charitable Trust

█ For more, enter the term *heritage* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DPAG exhibition talk, Sunday 20 Sept —Jonathan Howard on Dunedin 1865

Jonathan Howard, Heritage New Zealand’s Otago Southland Area Manager, will talk on the exhibition now showing Dunedin 1865: A City Rises. This is a 2015 Dunedin Heritage Festival event.

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[screenshot – click to enlarge]

http://dunedin.art.museum/events/date/2015-09-20
http://dunedin.art.museum/exhibitions/now/a_city_rises

█ The exhibition closes on Sunday, 27 September 2015.

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EXHIBITION NOTICE
Archives New Zealand Dunedin Regional Office currently has an exhibition on display, until 16 October 2015, featuring the Testimonial presented by the citizens of Dunedin to the Dunedin Volunteer Fire Brigade to thank them for all their work in the fires of early 1865. Also on display, there are archives showing the work of the Dunedin Sanitary Commission, about the conversion of the Exhibition Building for the Dunedin Hospital and a proposal for new Provincial Government Buildings.

Archives New Zealand Dunedin Regional Office at 556 George Street

█ Open weekdays from 9.30am to 5.00pm. For more information, contact dunedin.archives @dia.govt.nz —or telephone 477 0404

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Related Posts and Comments:
30.8.15 DPAG exhibition | Dunedin 1865: A City Rises…
30.8.15 La Maison House of Pleasure, Queens Gardens —then and today
29.8.15 Standard Building, 201 Princes Street —then and today
23.8.15 1865 Dunedin —Heritage Festival 2015 ‘The Open City’ … 29 Aug
23.8.15 1865 Dunedin —Heritage Festival 2015 Shoreline Trail launch

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: Archives New Zealand Dunedin Regional Office at 556 George Street via Google Street View (Feb 2010)

Making heritage work | Dunedin New Zealand

Updated post Sat, 14 Mar 2015 at 4:05 p.m.

Interesting: Donovan Rypkema’s comments about planners’ preoccupation with densification, affecting communities living in older and historic residential neighbourhoods. He suggests sharing the density around but first, development of public transportation nodes requires attention. Dunedin’s draft second generation district plan (2GP) is heading to public notification in September this year.

### radionz.co.nz Fri, 13 Mar 2015
RNZ National – Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan
How important is heritage preservation in our cities
09:31 Donovan Rypkema is president of Heritage Strategies International, a Washington DC consulting firm. His book, “The Economics of Historic Preservation: A Community Leader’s Guide”, is now in its third edition and his firm has had clients including the World Bank, the Inter American Development Bank, the Council of Europe and the United Nations Development Programme. He’s in New Zealand as a guest of the Civic Trust Auckland.
Audio | Download: Ogg MP3 ( 16′ 02″ ) | RNZ Link

█ In 2010, the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (now Heritage New Zealand) hosted Rypkema on a three-city tour, including Dunedin. During his visit he met with city leaders and business people; and presented public lectures at the Old BNZ in Princes St and on campus.

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‘The Dunedin City Council provides advice and support for building owners who want to upgrade and lease their buildings. The Christchurch earthquake acted as a catalyst in Dunedin, forcing important decisions on the future of the older parts of the city.’ –Glen Hazelton, DCC policy planner (heritage)

### idealog.co.nz 04 Mar 2015
Making heritage work: reaping rewards from Dunedin’s classic architecture
By Suzanne Middleton
The Christchurch earthquakes changed the rules around heritage buildings. Dunedin had to decide to bowl or strengthen. The writer talked to some enlightened enthusiasts in the old warehouse district who chose the heritage option – and haven’t regretted it.
Read more

Originally published in Idealog #54 (page 40)

Old BNZ Building via Idealog/Suzanne Middleton [click to enlarge]

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[topical] Related Post and Comments:
28.11.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Building —Resource Consent granted
26.11.14 Retraction (see comment on ‘Heritage Counts’)
26.9.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Building —what ESCO said!
30.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Building: Looking round at potential
18.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Building #randomsmartphonepix (interiors)
17.8.14 Public Notices: NZ Loan and Mercantile Building… (site tour, hearing)
13.8.14 Chamber’s Own Goals —Heritage (letters)
11.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Building (audio)
8.8.14 NZ Loan and Mercantile Agency Co Ltd Building…
18.3.14 Dunedin Harbourside: English Heritage on portside development
21.10.13 Harbourside: Access to a revamped Steamer Basin has public backing
█ 28.3.11 Historic preservation [more on Rypkema – link replaced 14.3.15]

NZ Loan and Mercantile Building, Customhouse, Wharf Hotel [click to enlarge]
Image by whatifdunedin (lowres) – colour shots when appeal quashed

Note: Lunds were responsible for construction of the Cross Wharf, and reconstruction of the listed HM Custom House as a restaurant, on behalf of the Otago Regional Council.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Ian Athfield dies #architecture

Updated post Thu, 23 Jan 2014 at 5:28 p.m.
Public Memorial Service (1 February) details below.

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█ Sir Ian Charles Athfield KNZM (15 July 1940 – 16 January 2015) was a New Zealand architect. He was born in Christchurch and graduated from the University of Auckland in 1963 with a Diploma of Architecture. That same year he joined Structon Group Architects, and he became a partner in 1965. In 1968 he was a principal partner in setting up Athfield Architects with Ian Dickson and Graeme John Boucher (Manson). Link to profile

Sir Ian had recently been made a knight companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to architecture. Photo: NZ Herald

Athfield made a knight (2014) | Wellingtonian Interview Q&A (2009)
Review of Athfield’s biography (2012)

Website: Athfield Architects | Google Images: Ian Athfield

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### stuff.co.nz Last updated 17:51, January 16 2015
The Dominion Post
Renowned architect Sir Ian Athfield dies, aged 74
By Simon Bradwell and Tom Hunt
Renowned Wellington-based architect Sir Ian Athfield has died. He was 74.
Athfield Architects associate Rachel Griffiths said Sir Ian died in Wellington Hospital early this morning surrounded by family. His death was the result of “unexpected complications” during a procedure to treat his colon cancer.
“Ath had been dealing with cancer for some time with his usual stoicism and inappropriate humour,” Griffiths said. “There is … no-one else like Ath and we are devastated by his passing.” The Athfield family had asked for time to deal with their grief, she said. No date had been set for the funeral or memorial service at this stage.

A statement released this morning by the New Zealand Institute of Architects announced his death. “It is with great sadness that we inform Members that Sir Ian Athfield, one of New Zealand’s finest architects, has passed away in Wellington,” it said. “Our deepest condolences go out to Ath’s family, friends and colleagues. There are few details to share at this stage, but we will notify members of any funeral or memorial service arrangements as soon as they arise.”

Athfield, who was knighted in the most recent New Year Honours for his work in architecture, won more than 60 awards for his work. In a professional career spanning half a century, his stamp was imprinted across Wellington, and with Roger Walker, he was probably New Zealand’s leading exponent of modernist architecture. His most well-known works included the City Library and its nikau palm columns, built as part of the Civic Square redevelopment in the 1980s, and his own sprawling Khandallah house. He also designed Jade Stadium in Christchurch, which was damaged in the February 2011 earthquake.
Walker said he was “still in shock” on getting the news of Athfield’s death.
Read more

● 3 News: Kiwi architect Sir Ian Athfield dies [+ newsclip]
● New Zealand Herald: His designs offended and inspired: Architect Sir Ian Athfield dies [+ tweets with photos]
● ONE News: ‘Heavy hearts’ as renowned architect Sir Ian Athfield mourned
● Yahoo.com: ‘Rebellious’ architect Ian Athfield dies
● Wellington.scoop: Death of architect Ian Athfield
● NBR: Sir Ian Athfield, one of NZ’s most influential architects, has died

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ODT 20.1.15 (page 21)

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Death Notice – The Dominion Post [online]

█ Public Figure: Ian Athfield https://www.facebook.com/Ian-Athfield

Sir Ian Athfield – Public Memorial Service
The New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) have organised a public memorial service to celebrate the life and work of Sir Ian Athfield, to be held at 3pm, Sunday 1 February, in Civic Square, Wellington.
Details of the service are yet to be finalised, but it is envisaged that it will include eulogies from people who knew Ath well. The service will very much be a memorial to Ath the Architect, and many Members will wish to attend. https://www.nzia.co.nz/

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archivesnz Published on May 5, 2013

Architect Athfield (1979)
New Zealand National Film Unit presents Architect Athfield (1979)
‘Architect Athfield’ examines the frustrations and achievements of one of New Zealand’s most lively and innovative architects. In 1975 Ian Athfield won an international competition directed towards providing housing for 140,000 squatters from the Tondo area in Manila. Ironically, Athfield had jumped to international prominence before any wide-ranging acceptance in his own country. This film examines Athfield’s practical philosophy of architecture, and culminates in his trip to the Philippines, where he hopes to make his prize-winning design a reality.

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wclchannel Uploaded on Nov 30, 2011
Ian Athfield – Central Library architect

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[YouTube] Julia Gatley’s interview with Sir Miles Warren and Ian Athfield on the 23rd of June 2012 at City Gallery Wellington.
Ian Athfield Interview 23 June 2012 Part 1 of 4 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

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Phil O’Brien Published on Apr 14, 2013
Ian Athfield at the 2009 Gold Awards

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Related Posts and Comments:
24.4.13 Ian Athfield at Dunedin | Open Lecture Friday 26 April
3.3.13 RNZ Sunday Morning | Ideas: Re-imagining the Urban House
9.11.12 New Zealand Urban Design Awards
25.6.12 New Zealand Architects: Pete Bossley, and Ian and Clare Athfield
7.12.11 Ian Athfield on post-earthquake Christchurch #eqnz
19.9.11 NZIA members on Christchurch City Plan
13.7.08 Some thoughts

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Samples from What if? Comments

### rnz.co.nz Sunday 11 August 2013
Arts on Sunday
1:43 New Arts Icon Ian Athfield
Ian Athfield on his new honour and he talks about this weekend’s forum on how architects and designers can help out following natural disasters.
Audio Ogg MP3 (6′59″)

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### ODT Online Sat, 27 Apr 2013
‘Look at heritage differently,’ Athfield says
By John Gibb
Leading New Zealand architect Ian Athfield yesterday praised Dunedin’s wealth of heritage buildings but urged a rethink of aspects of the city’s one-way-street system. Mr Athfield, of Wellington, was in the city yesterday to give the annual New Zealand Historic Places Trust R.A. Lawson Lecture, as part of the Dunedin Heritage Festival. Addressing about 200 people at the University of Otago’s St David lecture theatre, he said “we have to look at heritage differently”. One-way street systems, in Dunedin and elsewhere, could sometimes separate important heritage buildings from their communities, and could make it difficult for people to approach such buildings on foot because of traffic volumes. Mr Athfield […] urged people to take a more flexible and holistic approach to heritage, treasuring the wider context of historic buildings, including their landscape settings, rather than seeing them only in isolation.
Read more

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Photo: City Gallery Wellington

Aalto Books profiles Portrait of a House by Simon Devitt
Published by Balasoglou Books May 2013
Only 1,000 copies printed with 100 special edition copies that include one of five photographic prints. At 140 pages, a true collector’s item for those interested in New Zealand history, architecture, design and photography.
Portrait of a House is a photo book by photographer Simon Devitt in collaboration with graphic designer Arch MacDonnell (Inhouse Design). This is Devitt’s first foray in the photo book genre. His book explores the Athfield House – the ‘village on the hill’ – an architectural experiment that Ian Athfield started in 1965 on the Khandallah hillside in Wellington, and which he is still altering and extending today.
The house is renowned in bohemian and academic circles for its many colourful dinner parties and occasions, and is infamous with neighbours past and present for the antics of its free-range livestock and frequent run-ins with Council. Roosters have been shot, construction shut down and architectural pilgrimages made.
This is an extraordinary story told through Devitt’s sensitive eye, blended with historic photographs, paintings and drawings from the Athfield archive. Clare Athfield’s contribution of her own recipes (dating from the 1960s until now) complements a selection of personal letters by family, friends, colleagues and clients which are insightful and often very funny – memories that make Simon’s photographs all the more potent in their beauty and silence.
The idea for the book came from Devitt’s admiration of Robin Morrison’s work and in particular Morrison’s 1978 photo book Images of a House about a William Gummer-designed house built in 1916. “A house is a pretty refined subject to make a book about,” explains Devitt. “It is not market driven, it is content driven and born out of passion. Life has happened there like in no other house, and the ‘living’ leaves its evidence, time has played out on its surface. There is a lot to be said about sitting still and how that looks. The Athfield house is a wonderful example of this. An accessible counterpoint to a largely asset based living that pervades New Zealand.”

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### radionz.co.nz 3 March 2013
Radio New Zealand National
Sunday Morning with Chris Laidlaw
Listen on 101 FM or online at radionz.co.nz

10:06 Ideas: Re-imagining the Urban House
Arguments for intensifying the density of housing tend to fall into two categories: Affordability and putting a halt to urban sprawl.
Ideas talks to two architects who advocate higher density housing not just for those reasons but because they believe, if done right, it will result in more liveable houses and communities.

Robert Dalziel, the co-author of A House in the City: Home Truths in Urban Architecture, has travelled the world looking at traditional models of high density housing and come to some interesting conclusions; and Ian Athfield, one of New Zealand’s most celebrated architects, talks about the lessons he’s learnt from building his own house which now combines living quarters for 25 people with office space for another 40.
Audio Ogg Vorbis MP3 (49′59″)

“Get rid of those traffic engineers, which is another bloody thing, y’know, they’re singularly minded, quite stupid, y’know, they don’t think of anything else other than how long it takes to move a car from one space to another – that can’t happen in our cities in future.”

“The word “urban design” is now an abused profession – just like planning was in the sixties, y’know, and I said in the sixties if we knew as much about planning as we thought we knew about apartheid, we’d be demonstrating against planning, before we demonstrated against apartheid, because it is really really important. We had zoning at the time, absolutely ridiculous…”

Athfield House, Wellington. Photo: Grant Sheehan

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### stuff.co.nz Last updated 07:46 23/03/2011
Architect Athfield not softening
Source: The Press
Architect Ian Athfield is refusing to back down from his ultimatum about Christchurch’s development. Today he defended his comments, saying it was “absolutely the best time ever” to have the debate about how the city would look in the future. He was backed by former Christchurch Mayor Garry Moore who said the city now had a “clean slate” that presented opportunities like never before. NZPA
Read more + Comments

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### radionz.co.nz Monday, 07 March 2011 at 8:22
Morning Report with Geoff Robinson & Simon Mercep
Architectural ambassador joins rebuild debate
The rebuilding of Christchurch is clearly an emotive issue. Wellington architect Ian Athfield and Christchurch planning and resource management consultant Dean Crystal join us to discuss the rebuild debate.
Audio Ogg Vorbis MP3 (6′22″)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Cr Hilary Calvert, an embarrassment

Only the day before the Winkle tried to “separate” DEBT from the STADIUM. She would do better sentenced to hard labour than try busting the rocks of the Autonomous Crown Entity, Heritage New Zealand —because she sure as hell won’t win.

The Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014 makes it unlawful for any person to modify or destroy, or cause to be modified or destroyed, the whole or any part of an archaeological site without the prior authority of Heritage New Zealand. Those wishing to do any work that may affect an archaeological site must obtain an authority from Heritage New Zealand before they begin.

█ http://www.heritage.org.nz/protecting-heritage/archaeology
█ Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Act 2014
█ s87 Offence of modifying or destroying archaeological site

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### ODT Online
Wed, 26 Nov 2014
Anger at Pol Pot remark
By Chris Morris
A Dunedin city councillor who compared Heritage New Zealand with the leader of the Khmer Rouge has been forced to beat a hasty retreat.
Cr Hilary Calvert made the comment as councillors discussed Heritage New Zealand’s desire to protect the old sea wall running alongside Portobello Rd on Otago Peninsula. […] on hearing Heritage New Zealand would likely want to see older sections of the wall protected, beneath a new one, Cr Calvert said the council should not be “asking their permission”. Read more

“We are being held to ransom by this Pol Pot-ish approach, aren’t we?” —Calvert [The Clueless]

█ Report – ISC – 25/11/2014 (PDF, 86.4 KB)
Peninsula Roading Acceleration Update

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: 3news.co.nz – Hilary Calvert

Heritage New Zealand RA Lawson Lecture 2014 — Wed 8 October

Proudly brought to you by Heritage New Zealand (formerly known as New Zealand Historic Places Trust) in association with Southern Heritage Trust and University of Otago, a free public lecture.

Lost Gold – Archaeology and research in the New Zealand Goldfields
Presented by Dr Peter Petchey
The New Zealand goldfields stretch from Southland to Coromandel, and were an important part of the development of modern New Zealand. They are archaeologically very rich, with mines, stamper batteries, tramways, miners’ huts and ghost towns scattered through the hills. Less well known, but essential for the interpretation of this evidence, are the remnants of the old School of Mines libraries that contain the books that the mining engineers actually used. The most important library of all was at the Otago School of Mines, which is forgotten but not quite lost. This talk will explore both the archaeology of the goldfields and the significance of these lost libraries.

When: Wednesday 8 October 2014 at 5.30pm
Venue: Archway 2 Lecture Theatre, University of Otago (cnr Union Street East and Leith Walk) [map item 44]
ALL WELCOME

█ Peter Petchey is a Dunedin based archaeologist who has a particular interest in the archaeology of the New Zealand goldfields and in industrial archaeology. His recent research has been on the archaeology of the stamper battery in New Zealand. He has also worked on research projects in Thailand and Papua New Guinea.

█ Biography: Lawson, Robert Arthur (1833–1902), Architect
This biography was written by Jonathan Mane-Wheoki and was first published in the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography Volume 2, 1993

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Campus Map (detail)

Prista Apartments Ltd: vulgar design, weak facadism, dog of a new infill to street #compromise

COULD HAVE BEEN A LOT WORSE

DCC reference: LUC-2008-580
Decision: DCC granted resource consent to Prista Apartments Ltd (applicant)
Subject site: 372-392 Princes Street and 11 Stafford Street, Dunedin

Historic heritage and precinct matters:
● District Plan listed facades for protection: 372-392 Princes Street
● District Plan listed South Princes Street Townscape Precinct (TH04)

Environment Court Appeal: Lodged by New Zealand Historic Places Trust on 5 October 2010. Subsequently, Elizabeth Kerr and Peter Entwisle registered as RMA s274 parties to appeal.

————–

LATEST IN BRIEF
After considerable delays, caucusing between the parties has resulted in a Consent Order from the Environment Court, such that there is:

● protection for only three existing heritage building facades to Princes Street (380, 386 and 392);
● one new façade (372 Princes Street) directly to street for new commercial building at 372-392 Princes Street (comprising apartments, retail and internal parking);
● one new commercial building to 11 Stafford Street;
● monitor against damage to historic Empire Hotel south of the application site; and
● site redevelopment at 372-392 Princes Street (including pre-1900 bread ovens at 392 Princes Street) subject to separate archaeological authority process.

Consent lapse date: 1 July 2021
No DCC-imposed bond required of the developer, Prista Apartments Ltd.

[Building colour and signage require separate resource consent.]

The following Consent Order is the culmination of a protracted process of negotiation between the parties New Zealand Historic Places Trust (Appellant), Dunedin City Council (Respondent) and the Applicant, Prista Apartments Ltd (Luke Dirkzwager of Christchurch).

█ Consent Order 26.6.14 (PDF, 748 KB)

Indicative renderings by Fulton Ross Team Architects, Christchurch show approximate bulk, scale and architectural treatment (December 2013) — at first floor level immediately above the verandah the building facades mask car parking, resulting in an obvious strip of dead window space:

Was it a frustrating anger-inducing process to get to this COMPROMISE ???
You betcha, for All concerned. Especially against the receiving environment at Dunedin where local developers and property investors hold a substantially different view to building conservation, sense of place, and sympathetic adaptive reuse for contemporary and future ownership, tenanting and business opportunities. However, all that is Cut Dead at this particular spot in Princes Street by a Christchurch personality who appears to be in no rush to build.
His buildings must remain safe and pose no threat to the general public in the meantime.

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Related Posts and Comments:
4.3.11 Reaction to another instance of unthinking ad-hocism from City Hall
15.9.10 Prista Apartments: Resource consent Decision + Appeal
4.5.10 Prista Apartments: Dunedin’s goldrush-era heritage won’t fall over…
24.1.10 Prista Apartments: 372-392 Princes St and 11 Stafford St

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Heritage New Zealand

The New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) – and now trading as Heritage New Zealand – is New Zealand’s leading national historic heritage agency and guardian of Aotearoa New Zealand’s national heritage. The environment in which NZHPT operates continues to be characterised by a growing interest in heritage, recognition of its social, cultural, environmental and economic benefits, and awareness of its importance to national identity.

The NZHPT was established by an Act of Parliament in 1954. The NZHPT is established as an autonomous Crown Entity under the Crown Entities Act 2004, and is supported by the Government and funded via Vote Arts, Culture and Heritage through the Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Its work, powers and functions are prescribed by the Historic Places Act 1993.

█ Heritage New Zealand – a change of name
In 2010, the Ministry for Culture and Heritage led a review of the Historic Places Act 1993 (HPA) and as a result of that work the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Bill was drafted and is currently before the House. It is currently awaiting the committee stage, and its third reading. The Bill includes provisions that will result in some changes to how the NZHPT operates, and to archaeological provisions of the HPA. It also proposes a change in name to Heritage New Zealand. The Bill will complete NZHPT’s transition from NGO to Crown Entity. To facilitate the transition, the decision was made to proceed with the name change ahead of the legislation. From 14 April 2014, the organisation has been known as Heritage New Zealand.

HeritageNewZealand 13 Apr 2014

Welcome to Heritage New Zealand
The New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) has changed its name to Heritage New Zealand. Chief Executive Bruce Chapman explains the reasons behind the change.

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Heritage New Zealand will continue to work in partnership with others, including iwi and hapū Māori, local and central government agencies, heritage NGOs, property owners, and volunteers. We will continue to provide advice to both central and local government, and property owners on the conservation of New Zealand’s most significant heritage sites. We will continue to maintain the national Register of historic places, manage 48 nationally significant heritage properties, regulate the modification of archaeological sites, and manage the national heritage preservation incentive fund.

While Heritage New Zealand receives 80% of its funding from the Crown, like many other Crown agencies it continues to be dependent for the remainder of funding from supporters, donations, grants, bequests, and through revenue generated at the heritage properties it cares for around the country.

Three key things remain the same under the new name:
● commitment to the long-term conservation of New Zealand’s most significant heritage places, including own role as custodian of 48 historic properties
● connection through members (membership benefits are unchanged) and supporters to the wider community
● continued status as a donee organisation, dependent on the goodwill and ongoing financial and volunteer support of the wider community for many of the outcomes the organisation achieves for heritage.

www.heritage.org.nz

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin Heritage Re-use Awards @Wall Street mall

This year’s Dunedin Heritage Re-use Award winners will be announced later this week at Wall Street mall.

The Awards celebrate excellence, innovation and sensitivity in the re-use of heritage buildings in Dunedin and include categories for earthquake strengthening, interiors and overall re-use. A student design competition is also held during the year, which challenges students to develop innovative solutions to the re-use of Dunedin’s older buildings.

If not invited to the Awards Ceremony check out the exhibition during shop hours. The board display is located near Marbecks cafe and the Lifts at Wall Street. [● Inconveniently. the exhibition closed on the night of the Awards, Wednesday 26 March]

Enticements. Here’s a selection of student ‘re-use’ studies for the Athenaeum in the lower Octagon, taken by cameraphone on Friday. The building is owned by entrepreneur Lawrie Forbes.

Love the (lowrise) tower, it accents the building successfully for functional and community use.

The Awards are judged by a panel that includes Dunedin City Councillors, representatives from the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, the local branch of the New Zealand Institute of Architects and the Institute of Professional Engineers of New Zealand, and building owners.

█ This year’s Award winners are revealed here.
The names of last year’s Award winners are listed here.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin Harbourside: English Heritage on portside development

By properly and logically establishing the significance of a historic port, plans can be laid that enhance and build on that significance and that incorporate difficult heritage buildings and structures.
–Simon Thurley, English Heritage

Dunedin Harbourside Historic Area
The New Zealand Historic Places Trust registered the Dunedin Harbourside Historic Area on 4 April 2008 (List No. 7767). The historic area takes in properties at 25, 31-33 Thomas Burns Street, Birch Street, Fryatt Street, Fish Street, Willis Street, Cresswell Street, Tewsley Street, Wharf Street, Roberts Street and Mason Street.

Image: Heritage New Zealand

The Dunedin Harbourside Historic Area is made up of the core of the port operations and associated businesses surrounding the steamer basin at the Upper Harbour in Dunedin which had developed by the first decades of the twentieth century. It includes a major portion of the land in Rattray, Willis and Cresswell Streets which was reclaimed by the end of the nineteenth century. It also includes the Fryatt Street and Cross Wharves, including the wharf sheds on Fryatt Street Wharf, as well as the former Otago Harbour Board Administration Building at the Junction of Birch Street and Cross Wharves, the former British Sailors’ Society Seafarers’ Centre, and the former Briscoe’s Wharf Store and Works on the corner of Birch, Wharf and Roberts Streets [since lost to fire], and the walls and bridge abutment on Roberts Street which are the remnants of the bridge which linked that Street to the city.
█ Read Registration report here.

Dunedin City Council has refused to list the Dunedin Harbourside Historic Area in the District Plan.

Image: ODT [screenshot]

### ODT Online Sat, 15 Mar 2014
‘Potential new harbourside developments ‘exciting’
By Chris Morris
Excitement is growing about the potential for fresh development of Dunedin’s harbourside, including a new marine science institute featuring a public aquarium being considered by the University of Otago. The Otago Daily Times understands university staff have already held preliminary talks with Dunedin City Council staff about a possible new marine science institute in the harbourside zone, on the south side of steamer basin. The Otago Regional Council has also met Betterways Advisory Ltd, which wants to build a waterfront hotel in the city, to discuss the ORC’s vacant waterfront site, it has been confirmed.
Read more

Potential for contemporary reuse – Fryatt Street wharfsheds
Images: 4.bp.blogspot.com; m1.behance.net

Historic ports are places that need intelligent interrogation before we start to reinvent them for the future: understanding their heritage significance is the first step.

On the waterfront: culture, heritage and regeneration of port cities

HERITAGE IN REGENERATION: INSPIRATION OR IRRELEVANCE?
By Dr Simon Thurley, Chief Executive, English Heritage

I had better come clean at the start. I live in a port. As it happens, it is a port which was, in its time, and on a different scale, as successful as Liverpool was in its heyday. But that time is rather a long time ago now, in fact over four hundred years. In 1600 my home town of King’s Lynn was amongst Britain’s leading ports, bigger than Bristol in numbers of ships and with trading tentacles reaching into the Baltic and far into the Mediterranean. Lynn’s position as a port was destroyed by the railways and although it still has working docks today the tonnage that passes through is very small. Yet anyone visiting it can instantly see that this was once a port; the customs house, the old quays, the merchants houses, the big market places and the fishermen’s houses all add immeasurably to Lynn’s sense of place.

We not only ask developers to build new structures that respect the old, but we also require them to incorporate old ones that have value.

It is this sense of place, this character, that we at English Heritage will always say that needs to be understood. For us the first and most important thing is that any developer and the relevant local authority should have a full understanding of the place in which major change is are planned. Various tools have been invented over the years to try and help that process. These include characterisation, historical studies, view studies, urban analysis and more. But does this actually make any difference? What happens to the richly illustrated historical reports produced by consultants? Are they handed to architects who then use them as their bible? Are they taken up by the planners and turned into supplementary planning guidance? Or do they just get put on a shelf?

There can be a broad consensus about what constitutes successful development that preserves aesthetic values. The trick for planning authorities is finding a way to capture it.

The answer is that normally it just gets forgotten because for most developers and many local authorities heritage is just a hindrance. If a report on heritage is commissioned they will have ticked off a process that they need to say they have done, but once completed it can be set aside and everyone can get on with the business of making money. Ipswich is an example of this. Like many ports, it has refocused its commercial hub away from the historic centre leaving a lot of land in the historic trading heart for regeneration. The city decided to prepare what it called an Area Action Plan for the redevelopment of the historic port. This included some work on the history, archaeology and development of the area: all very useful. The process was then to take this forward to create a series of planning briefs and master plans to inform individual developments. This would reinforce general points in the action plan about storey heights, vistas and through routes as well as issues about historic character. Regrettably, this latter part was not done and what Ipswich got was lots of poorly designed high-rise flats built on a budget. And they got it with the heritage studies still sitting on a shelf.
Read more

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Image: English Heritage – Tobacco Warehouse 1903, Stanley Dock LP

Liverpool World Heritage Site
Liverpool was inscribed as a World Heritage Site as the supreme example of a maritime city and its docks are testimony to that claim. Jesse Hartley’s Albert Dock, opened in 1845, is the finest example of a nineteenth century wet dock in the world while the nearby Canning Graving Docks and Waterloo and Wapping Warehouses are also of note. North of Pier Head with its magnificent ‘Three Graces’, Stanley Dock, Victoria Clock Tower and Salisbury Dock lie derelict, awaiting re-use. Link

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Contemporary development — Shed 10 and The Cloud, Queens Wharf, Auckland
Images: (from top) conventionsnz.co.nz; queens_wharf.co.nz; queens_wharf.co.nz; upload.wikimedia.org

█ For more, enter the terms *loan and mercantile* or *harbourside* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Earthquake-prone Buildings Amendment Bill

The proposed amendment bill raises significant concerns about the maintenance of current building stock, the character and identity of towns and cities, and the economic and financial wellbeing of provincial councils and their communities. More than 7000 buildings south of Timaru would require upgrading, at a cost of $1.77 billion over a 15-year period.

### ODT Online Mon, 24 Feb 2014
Councils aghast changes could cost billions
By Andrew Ashton
South Island councils are expected to offer a ”united front” in opposing new Government building regulations that could cost councils billions of dollars to implement.
Last year the Waitaki District Council joined the Dunedin and Invercargill city councils and the Central Otago, Clutha, Gore, Mackenzie, Southland, Timaru and Waimate district councils to present a joint submission on a discussion paper detailing proposed changes to the way earthquake-prone buildings are managed.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: Town Halls and auxillary functions (clockwise from top left) Invercargill, Dunedin, Timaru and Oamaru – posterised by whatifdunedin

Otago Museum: H D Skinner Annex + returning exhibition!

### ODT Online Sat, 4 Jan 2014
Museum to keep annex open all year
By John Gibb
Otago Museum is planning to keep its recently redeveloped H D Skinner Annex open to the public throughout the year, to allow increased community use. The recent ‘Heritage Lost and Found: Our Changing Cityscape‘ exhibition, displayed in the Postmaster Gallery at the annex, had been “very well received” by the community. This show, which was developed with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust, would now be reinstalled, and, in response to “public demand”, would return to public display from March. Read more

● Otago Museum H D Skinner Annex (building background and facilities)

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Comment at ODT Online:

Lost and found
Submitted by ej kerr on Sat, 04/01/2014 – 11:03am.

The significance of the recently closed exhibition for local residents and city visitors was perhaps, at the time, under-appreciated by the exhibiting parties. Dunedin City has formerly lacked such an insightful, rational and easily grasped interactive exhibition on the historical layers of the built environment – signposting the form and change to our cultural heritage landscape and urban context, for better or worse since early days.

This is a planned city (thank you, surveyor Charles Kettle) – we should always honour Dunedin’s uniqueness and intricate textures representatively and graphically; know the ‘before and afters’, the losses, additions and discoveries; be able to quickly recount how the cityscape has evolved, with just these type visual aids and new evolving IT. ‘Heritage Lost and Found’ exactly captures the spirit of where we are!

It’s great news the exhibition is set to continue – in a broader sense, the exhibition is something to build on and develop into the future as a permanent visitor display worthy of any sensitive location for public education. It can take special refreshes and add-ons as research into the merits and quirks of the architecture (our collective legacy) continues through the work of New Zealand Historic Places Trust, Dunedin City Council, Otago Museum, related city archives and collections, archaeologists, building owners, researchers, and professional architectural historians of the calibre of Peter Entwisle and David Murray. The combined effort, its coordination, contains so much power, potential and publishing opportunity. Boggles the mind, then there’s the overwhelming ‘pasture’ for design excellence to cover the brief…
[ends]

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Former Dunedin North Post Office before work started, photo by Benchill via Wikimedia Commons. (below) Proposed building redevelopment rendered by McCoy and Wixon Architects, 2012.

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Links to earlier stories copied from another thread:

● ODT 11.7.13 Museum annex set for opening [after delays]
The $1.6 million redevelopment of the former Dunedin North post office as an Otago Museum exhibition area is nearing completion, and the first display is expected to open next month. Titled ‘Heritage Lost and Found: Our Changing Cityscape’, the first exhibition to be displayed at the annexe was developed in partnership with the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. The display would showcase “important aspects of Dunedin’s built heritage that have been demolished or redeveloped”.

● ODT 7.7.13 Work near end on old Post Office
● ODT 18.5.13 Museum’s ‘old post office’ annex nearly ready

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image – opening graphic, view from Museum reserve by Whatifdunedin

Owen Graham, heritage advocate

### ODT Online Sun, 20 Oct 2013
Wins and the odd loss in preservation game
By Rosie Manins

Owen Graham, of Dunedin, counts the preservation of the Athenaeum Library in the Octagon as one of the highlights of his six years as the Otago-Southland area manager for the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.
Longtime heritage advocate Owen Graham hopes his grandchildren will benefit from his work to preserve Otago’s history.
Mr Graham recently ended his six-year tenure as the Otago-Southland area manager for the New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT).
The Dunedin resident spent about 26 years before that in a similar role for the Department of Conservation, and said going into the corporate industry after more than three decades working for the Government was a refreshing change.
His work to advocate the values of heritage throughout the region was often met with opposition and was not without controversy.
Read more

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Related Posts and Comments:
9.4.13 DCC sells Athenaeum, 23 The Octagon
9.6.12 City Property to compete more obviously in the market…
17.1.12 DCC living beyond its means [all spending and debt not declared]
21.2.11 The proactive heritage development lobby EXISTS in Dunedin

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: odt.co.nz – Owen Graham, re-imaged by Whatifdunedin

Archaeological site: Castle Street

### ch9.co.nz August 8, 2013 – 6:58pm
Slice of history comes to light
A slice of Dunedin’s past came to surface today outside the city’s historic railway station.
Video

Ch39 – nineteenth century footpath edging or water channel unearthed in Castle Street [screenshots]

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Heritage: Old BNZ, Dunedin —restored

Work on the historic bank included strengthening the structure from 67% of building code requirements to 100% and installing a full fire sprinkler system.

205 Princes St – Old BNZ c.1888 (photo by FA Coxhead re-imaged)

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With Silver Fern [Farms] also moving into the old chief post office, it will give the Exchange momentum. The shops will do better and it will give the whole area more impetus. –Michael van Aart

### ODT Online Sat, 27 Jul 2013
Refurbished bank building ready for law firm
By Nigel Benson
Dunedin’s former commercial heart – the Exchange – will pulsate with new life next week. With scaffolding removed and tradesmen gone, the 130-year-old Bank of New Zealand building in Princes St will become the new home to commercial law firm Van Aart Sycamore Lawyers on Wednesday. The occupation of the building, which is considered architect William Barnett Armson’s (1834-1883) masterpiece, follows an 18-month restoration project.
“We’re really looking forward to moving in,” firm director Michael van Aart said yesterday. “The building is dramatic and one of a kind. We have to celebrate the unique features we have here in Dunedin and heritage is certainly one of them. The Exchange was the heart of New Zealand’s economy when it was built.”
The building had been untenanted for the past 13 years. Van Aart Sycamore Lawyers had been based in Radio House for the past six years and the move would be good for the Exchange, Mr van Aart believed.
Read more

Armson drawing no. 10, Princes St facade with secondary doorway

Readings:
New Zealand Historic Places Trust – Category 1 Historic Place
(No. 7299) Registration Report – the history and significance

[wikipedia] Princes Street, Dunedin
[wikipedia] Bank of New Zealand

Book: John Barsby, The BNZ Building, Princes Street Dunedin (Southern Heritage Trust, 2011)

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Related Post and Comments:
26.2.13 Bank of New Zealand Building, 205 Princes St (cnr Rattray)
[more images]

The banking desk designed by architect Robert A Lawson is held by Otago Settlers Museum; and an original ornamental fire surround from the bank is installed at Antrim House (NZHPT National Office) in Wellington (photographs in Barsby). It is thought one more fire surround went to another Wellington residence.

RA Lawson, Drawing for write-up desk, Old BNZ

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

University: Leith flood protection scheme and landscaping

Proposed landscaping within the university’s heritage precinct. The St David St footbridge will be extended. [graphic via ODT]

### ODT Online Wed, 24 Jul 2013
Registry stretch of Leith set for summer revamp
By Rebecca Fox
The stretch of the Water of Leith in front of the University of Otago’s registry building looks set to get a multimillion-dollar makeover this summer. Students, staff and visitors could soon be able to walk along grassy verges next to lowered banks of the river, from the St David St footbridge to the Union St bridge, if a design plan is approved at an Otago Regional Council committee meeting tomorrow.
It has been about seven years since the council and the university signed an agreement to work together to produce a plan to suit the council’s need for flood protection and the university’s need for an aesthetic look in front of its historic registry building.
The council had budgeted $5.4 million over the next 12 months for the work. The university and the council are each to fund half the cost of the aesthetic work.
Among the work to be endorsed by the committee is the lowering of most of the concrete wall on the east bank, extending the footbridge, cutting down the west bank and landscaping and footpath redevelopment.
Read more

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Related Posts and Comments:
27.5.13 Carisbrook and Leith flood protection
17.11.10 Leith Lindsay Flood Protection Scheme
17.5.10 Campus Master Plan
28.1.10 University of Otago Campus Master Plan

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Cities: Organic renewal

St Joseph, Missouri

### Citiwire.net Fri, July 5, 2013
Organic Renewal: St Joe’s Story
By Roberta Brandes Gratz
In the mid- and late 1960s, while many cities and towns were still tearing their hearts out for the false promises of urban renewal, all sorts of people, young and old, saw the beauty, value and promise of gracious living in historic buildings in the places left behind by suburban development. From San Francisco to Louisville to Providence to Brooklyn to St Louis and beyond, urban pioneers stripped, cleaned and restored the irreplaceable artifacts of bygone eras of quality and taste.
Those pioneers were the vanguard of the regeneration of neighbourhoods and cities that, today, many people do not remember were considered a blighted lost cause. Washington’s Georgetown. Park Slope in Brooklyn. King William in San Antonio. The Garden District in New Orleans. The Victorian Districts of San Francisco and Savannah. Who remembers that those neighbourhoods were once considered “blighted,” over, finished?

Surely, this is the most compelling storyline of the second half of the last century. The rebirth of today’s thriving cities started with the rediscovery of yesterday’s discards. That, as they say, is history. But history has a funny way of repeating itself. Today, one finds examples of that organic renewal process re-emerging.

Many cities have lost more than what remains of the authentic architecture on which to build a new momentum. Miraculously, one that survives with an amazing rich legacy to work with is St Joseph, Mo.
Set on a bend in the Missouri River and almost equidistant from Kansas City and Omaha, St Joseph was a railroad, lumber and banking centre and, most importantly, the last full provisioning point for the Westward Expansion in the mid-nineteenth century. It’s the birthplace of the Pony Express, the site of Jesse James’ demise, home of Stetson Hat, Saltine crackers and Aunt Jemima.
St Joseph is still home to a diverse assortment of agriculture-related industry. The past and present combine to offer new opportunities, and a small but growing group of adventurous entrepreneurs appear to be present to lead the way, like the urban pioneers of 50 years ago.
Read more

● Roberta Brandes Gratz is an urban critic and author of The Battle For Gotham: New York In the Shadow of Robert Moses and Jane Jacobs, 2010, Nation Books.

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Dunedin City Council – Media Release
Grants Scheme for Central City Heritage Buildings

This item was published on 05 Jul 2013.

The DCC now has $90,000 available in grants for heritage building re-use projects in Princes Street and areas adjoining the Warehouse Precinct. Like the Warehouse Precinct scheme, this new grant scheme is focused on a specific geographic area to facilitate and expand the regeneration occurring there already. There has been good success with targeted incentive schemes in the Warehouse Precinct. Expanding into the areas around it recognises that the precinct is not an island, but is integrated with the areas around in and with the central city as a whole.

There is already some great work stirring regeneration in the area and it is important we are also poised to assist and encourage others to participate in this regeneration of the area south of the Octagon.

Applications can be made for support for a range of activities, from earthquake strengthening and facade restoration to assistance for businesses and creative industries in the area. The scheme allows building owners to build on the growing positive private sector re-use and investment in the area, such as the Chief Post Office, former BNZ and Standard Building restoration projects already or soon to be underway.

The scheme is supported by Resene Paints which is offering discounts on paint and free colour advice. Resene Otago Trade Representative Henry Van Turnhout says, “We are proud to be offering our support to another DCC area-based project, as we have for King Edward St and the Warehouse Precinct. We are also offering free assistance with colour selection as we recognise how greatly appropriate colour choice can influence the way a building – and an area – looks.”

Taking an area-based approach to regeneration and incentives encourages businesses and building owners to work together and to recognise the benefits for the entire area of re-using or improving their building.

Applications are open immediately, on a first come first served basis. Application forms will be sent to building owners, residents and businesses owners in the next week and are at www.dunedin.govt.nz/heritage

Last year’s Warehouse Precinct grants scheme supported 11 re-use projects in the area. Information about these is available at here.

Contact Glen Hazelton, DCC Policy Planner on 477 4000.

DCC Link
ODT: DCC boost for Princes St regeneration

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Dunedin. In future years, the council plans to use this approach in other parts of the central city and beyond.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: (from top) commons.wikimedia.org Tim Kiser – St Joseph, Missouri (2006): Buchanan County Courthouse, Downtown cnr Francis St and North 4th St, Downtown viewed from the east near cnr 10th and Charles. Dunedin: South Princes St (2007 watercolour by Elizabeth Gorden-Werner), former Gresham Hotel at Queens Gardens, Speight’s (Lion Breweries) on Rattray St; commons.wikimedia.org Benchill – Dunedin Central Fire Station, Castle St.

Carisbrook: Calder Stewart to demo Dunedin’s historic stadium

### stuff.co.nz Last updated 05:00 22/05/2013
Carisbrook ground demolition plans under way
By Wilma McCorkindale – D Scene
Plans are afoot to demolish Dunedin’s historic rugby ground, Carisbrook, tender documents show. The company that has signed up to buy Carisbrook – Otago construction company Calder Stewart – has issued tender documents inviting demolition companies to register their interest in clearing the site this year. Calder Stewart co-managing director Peter Stewart declined to confirm the tender or give details. The company was still under a conditional contract for Carisbrook with the Dunedin City Council, therefore he would not comment on the project, Stewart said.
Read more

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### ODT Online Thu, 23 May 2013
Plans to demolish Carisbrook
By Chris Morris
Calder Stewart has plans to demolish almost all of Carisbrook. The company bought the old stadium from the Dunedin City Council in a conditional deal in February for $3.3 million. Confirmation of the purchase appears to be due next month. Documents released to the Otago Daily Times yesterday confirmed the company planned to clear almost every structure from the former home of Otago rugby for future development.

The consent documentation also showed the demolition work was expected to cost the company $350,000.

Only the Neville St turnstile building would be spared, at least for now, as the Dunedin City Council and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust continue to discuss a covenant to protect the category one-listed structure. However, the Speight’s, Neville St, Rose and Railway stands would be demolished, as would the terrace hospitality complex, built for $4 million in 1994.
The details were spelled out in two building consents issued by council staff to Calder Stewart last month, and released to the ODT yesterday.
Read more

Related Post and Comments:
20.2.13 Carisbrook: DScene suggests joint venture Calder Stewart / DCC

For more, enter “carisbrook” in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Images (from top):
Carisbrook Stadium, two models by totara (sketchup.google.com)
Rugby at Carisbrook (3news.co.nz)
Carisbrook seating plan (ticketseating.com)
Carisbrook, Neville St turnstile building (historic.org.nz) [Jonathan Howard]
Carisbrook (teara.govt.nz) [file: p-22728-odt]

DCC governance = management ?

QUESTIONS
Mayor & Councillors | City Property | City Planning | Strategy and Development Team | Council-owned Companies | Consenting Processes | Conflicts

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On selling council-owned property…. [public notification restricted]

[Mr McLaren] told the Otago Daily Times he was not consulted about the proposal, in part because he was a commercial rival. However, he was also a resident living in a house that overlooked the proposed development site from Braeview Cres….

### ODT Online Tue, 30 Apr 2013
Anger over motor caravan park plan
By Chris Morris
The Dunedin City Council will consider allowing a new motor caravan park to be developed near Woodhaugh Gardens, just metres away from a rival camping spot. […] The New Zealand Motor Caravan Association has applied to the council for consent to establish the park at 51, 55 and 57 Woodhaugh St, on a vacant residential site next to houses and the Leith Stream. […] The proposal was deemed non-complying under the district plan, but attracted only four submissions – three of them opposed – after public notification was restricted to surrounding neighbours deemed to be affected.
Read more

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Only yesterday . . . [heading to non-notified consent]

### ODT Online Mon, 29 Apr 2013
New supermarket plan hailed
By Chris Morris
A planned multimillion-dollar supermarket development in Green Island could bring jobs and investment and trigger wider improvements in the area, a Dunedin city councillor says. Progressive Enterprises is in talks with the Dunedin City Council aimed at developing a Fresh Choice supermarket on land between Main South Rd and Shand St.
Read more

Related Post and Comments:
29.4.13 Green Island activity centre

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Last year . . . [non-notified application, loss of oldest brewery building on site]

### ODT Online Fri, 17 Aug 2012
Speight’s demolition to make way for expansion
By Chris Morris
Part of the Speight’s Brewery in Dunedin will be demolished to make room for the $29 million expansion of its operation. […] The company announced its intention to redevelop the brewery last year, after earthquake damage to the Canterbury Brewery, and began by relocating its Maltexo production plant to Dunedin in May this year.
Read more

### ODT Online Sat, 18 Aug 2012
Questions over consent for Speight’s
By Chris Morris
Heritage advocates are questioning why the public was not given a say about the demolition of a protected part of Speight’s Brewery in Dunedin.
Read more

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Property acquisition for the stadium and SH88 developments . . .
[the hornet’s nest]

### stuff.co.nz Last updated 18:04 20/11/2012
Dunedin City Council fined for road botch up
By Wilma McCorkindale – DScene
A High Court decision has slammed Dunedin City Council’s (DCC) handling of a roading realignment in the city, ordering the cash -strapped authority to pay affected parties more than $185,000 in costs. Justice Alan Mackenzie indicated in a written decision the legality of the stretch of State Highways 1 and 88 through the city remained in question because of the council’s botch up.
Read more

Judgment-221310 (PDF, 109 KB)

Related Post and Comments:
20.11.12 Dunedin City Council vs Anzide Properties decision: The road “has no legal basis”

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Then there was Delta . . . [property acquisition at Jacks Point and Luggate, which names in common]

### ODT Online Thu, 25 Apr 2013
Delta investigation ‘major’
By Chris Morris
The Office of the Auditor-general considers its investigation into land purchases by Dunedin City Council-owned company Delta to be one of its major inquiries for the coming year. Results of the investigation might not be made public for some months, at the earliest. The OAG’s draft annual plan for the 2013-14 year, published last week, detailed work planned for the 12 months from July 1. The plan listed the Delta investigation as one of the “major inquiries” to be reported on during the year. The investigation into Delta’s $14.12 million land purchases in 2008 and 2009 at Luggate, near Wanaka, and Jacks Point, near Queenstown, was confirmed last November.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Ian Athfield at Dunedin | Open Lecture Friday 26 April

New Zealand Historic Places Trust RA Lawson Lecture

Ian Athfield — “Heritage Starts with a Great Idea Tomorrow”
Thoughts on community and heritage

New Zealand Historic Places Trust and New Zealand Institute of Architects – Southern Branch are co-sponsoring the public talk by one of New Zealand’s most well-known architects, Ian Athfield

Panel on stage – Lawrie Forbes (property developer), Glen Hazelton (DCC urban design), Elizabeth Kerr (architecture advocate), Stephen Macknight (structural engineer)

When: Friday 26 April 2013 at 7:30 pm

Where: University of Otago, St David Lecture Theatre
Union Street East, Dunedin

All welcome

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Ian Athfield is a prominent New Zealand architect who over his 40+ year career has contributed significantly to the built environment of New Zealand. He has a strong interest in urban design, landscape and the continuing craft of architecture with an emphasis on building off the existing physical environment.

While first establishing a reputation through innovative housing, Athfield is renowned for his big picture thinking in both urban and rural environments. He has been involved in the creation of many of New Zealand’s most successful urban spaces, landscapes, and buildings. His work continues to stretch across all scales from furniture and public sculpture to architecture, landscape, and urban design; and across type from domestic to civic.

Athfield’s contribution to architecture has received widespread recognition and not only earned his practice numerous design awards but earned him the 2004 NZIA Gold Medal, an honorary Doctorate in Literature from Victoria University and in 1996 the New Zealand Government made him a Companion to the New Zealand Order of Merit.

Ian Athfield is currently serving on the Board of The New Zealand Historic Places Trust, and as a member of the NZHPT Maori Heritage Council.

http://www.athfieldarchitects.co.nz/

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Related Posts:
3.3.13 RNZ Sunday Morning | Ideas: Re-imagining the Urban House
25.6.12 New Zealand Architects: Pete Bossley, and Ian and Claire Athfield
7.12.11 Ian Athfield on post-earthquake Christchurch #eqnz
19.9.11 NZIA members on Christchurch City Plan

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin Town Hall (sic) and Dunedin Centre reopen this week

“The entire complex is now known as the Dunedin Centre.”

● Dunedin Town Hall will always be known as Dunedin Town Hall, not a flower by another name !!!!

● Godsakes, ditch DVML as the venue operator !!!!

● UPDATE 24.4.13 – Major stuff up. DVML mismanages Town Hall seating plan for Anzac Day Revue. Those with prebooked seats will be treated as general admission. ODT

Related Post:
7.3.13 Town Hall, Dunedin Centre, Municipal Chambers #linked

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Dunedin City Council
Media Release

Busy Times Ahead for Revamped Dunedin Centre

This item was published on 22 Apr 2013.

The doors don’t open to the public until Thursday, but the redeveloped Dunedin Centre has already got bookings through until May 2015.

Some large events are already booked, including national and international conferences such as the Ingenium Conference and the 5th Global Botanic Gardens Congress. There are also concert bookings by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Music New Zealand and the Southern Sinfonia, as well as bookings for school formals, graduations, weddings and private functions.

Invited guests will join Mayor of Dunedin Dave Cull in a low-key civic ceremony on Wednesday morning to celebrate the Dunedin Centre’s new lease of life. The first performance will be the Dunedin RSA Choir performance in the Town Hall on Anzac Day.

Mr Cull says, “The Dunedin Centre complex is very much an events centrepiece for our city and it’s great to see there are a number of bookings already.”

About $45 million has been spent over several years upgrading and renovating the existing Dunedin Centre/Town Hall and Municipal Chambers (work on the latter was completed in August 2011). The entire complex is now known as the Dunedin Centre.

Key elements of the overall upgrade include linkages between all buildings to enable people to move easily within what is now an integrated convention centre. There will be lift access to all Dunedin Centre and Town Hall floors, including the Town Hall ceiling, as well as major technology upgrades, new kitchen facilities, new conference/function spaces and new toilets. Another key feature of the redevelopment is a raft of sophisticated behind-the-scenes improvements, which mean the buildings now meet regulations in areas such as fire protection, health and safety, ventilation and access.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*fashionable* Heritage Dunedin and the RMA holocaust

Council-owned Dunedin Railway Station

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### ODT Online Sun, 21 Apr 2013
Council says heritage buildings under threat
By Chris Morris
Important heritage buildings in Dunedin could be lost if proposed changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) are confirmed, the Dunedin City Council says. The council’s concerns about historic architectural losses were articulated in a submission to the Ministry for the Environment, in response to a raft of proposed RMA changes recently unveiled by Environment Minister Amy Adams.
Proposed changes included the Resource Reform Management Bill, introduced last December, which was before a select committee and had closed a call for public submissions. Among the proposals was the removal of a reference to the ”protection of” historic heritage, which would be replaced with wording requiring recognition of, and provision for, ”the importance and value” of historic heritage.

”Important heritage buildings valued by the community could be lost when insignificant weight is given both to the importance of heritage to Dunedin’s residents, and to the growing significance of the city’s buildings on a national and international level, following the losses in Christchurch.”

Councillors have already been warned uncertainty over key new phrases proposed for the RMA might need to be tested in the courts, and the council’s submission warned the change ”diminishes the importance of historic heritage”.
Read more

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### stuff.co.nz Last updated 05:00 21/04/2013
City wears its history with pride
By Rosemary McLeod
How can Dunedin fashion have a reputation for Gothic gloom, when early autumn showcases clear skies and a harbour like pale-blue glass and unexpected sunshine roasts me in my pessimistic woollies? The city has turned on idyllic weather for iD Dunedin Fashion Week, from March 10 to 17.
With barely a whisper of wind, reddening leaves dangle in the city’s parks and gardens as if by spider threads, viburnums are a mass of clear red berries, and the hillside of 19th-century stone and brick houses overlooking town declares a rooted solidity among greenery, even if we have all become nervous of such buildings because of what happened in that other city.

Since havoc was wreaked on Christchurch, Dunedin could seem more remote than ever, an add-on at the bottom of that big island, but it has always had its own distinct character and its old buildings are integral to that.

Before Auckland, this was where money was, and lots of it. It was the financial and population hub of the country and it was built to last long before nonsense like leaky homes. Dunedin is what Auckland isn’t.

Protecting Dunedin’s design heritage

If I had my way, it would have a vast dome over it, keeping it like this for posterity, because we have nothing else like it and will never create it again.

I could go on about the past, because it’s all around you in Dunedin, a city with a main street still at its heart, where you can still do your shopping instead of driving to suburban malls, where the local privately owned newspaper seems untouched by media challenges elsewhere and where I’ve trawled the second-hand shops over the years and made great discoveries.

Where populations stay put, so does their stuff. You dig here for a different kind of gold than the prospectors, who brought wealth here 150-odd years ago, but in its own way it’s just as exciting.

There are two museums and one public art gallery, all thriving, for a population of about 120,000. Independent retailers still exist on the main street. There are no vulgar high-rise buildings, although a developer desperately wants to build a 40-storeyed hotel. Yet in the midst of its rather smug history, Dunedin is held together not by the past but the future. Education is its core business.

Like a wise old parent, it puts up with the antics of the students so vital to its economy, stopping short of hysterics when they really put tolerance to the test, which is why, as its Fashion Week shows, Dunedin isn’t fusty.
Read more

● Rosemary McLeod was hosted by Tourism Dunedin.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Images: Dunedin Railway Station via nakedbus.com (top), craiglawson.net (middle), seenindunedin.co.nz (bottom); Rosemary McLeod via bayofplentytimes.co.nz

Prof Claudio Modena | Open Lecture Wednesday 1 May

New Zealand Historic Places Trust and New Zealand Society of Earthquake Engineering public talk

Professor Claudio Modena — “Retrofit of stone masonry buildings”
Italian research and practice

The New Zealand Historic Places Trust (NZHPT) and the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering (NZSEE) present a public talk by Italian earthquake engineering academic and consultant, Professor Claudio Modena.

When: Wednesday 1 May 2013 at 5:30 pm

Where: University of Otago, Quad 2 Lecture Theatre
1st floor Geology Building, Dunedin

All welcome

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Claudio Modena is a Professor of Structural Engineering at the University of Padova, Italy (1994–). He has presented the course of “Structural Problems of Monumental Historical Heritage” in Architectural and Building Engineering and is Director of the Masters course in ‘Structural Restoration of Historic Monuments and Buildings’.

Author of over 200 papers in international journals and attendances at conferences, Claudio Modena is interested in analysis and design of construction, with particular attention on:
– masonry of historical and monumental structures
– strengthening/retrofitting in seismic areas
– retrofitting of metal and masonry arch bridges, and
– safety evaluations.

The professor has maintained a balance between academic and practical experience, combining with mutual benefit both research work and technical consulting. Most of his consulting activity is in the field of restoration and conservation of historic masonry structures.

Claudio Modena is a member of several technical and scientific committees: Cultural Heritage Ministry, Protection of Cultural Heritage from Seismic Hazard Committee. He is currently a member of the High Risks Committee – Seismic Risk Sector of the national Civil Protection Agency and of the special committee established by the Ministry of Infrastructures and Public Works for re-drafting the national codes system related to structural safety of both new and existing structures.

Visit this website for more information about the New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering Inc www.nzsee.org.nz

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr