2013 Southern Architecture Awards – NZ Institute of Architects

Civic rejuvenation a theme of Southern Architecture Awards

15 November 2013

Buildings that acknowledge a rich colonial heritage were celebrated in the 2013 Southern Architecture Awards, announced at Remarkables Primary School in Queenstown on Friday, 15 November.

The 12 award-winning projects span a number of architectural types, ranging from public buildings such as museums and bus shelters, to a gymnasium and study centre, and private homes located across the Otago and Southland regions.

Convenor of the jury, Queenstown architect Bronwen Kerr, said judging was made all the more rewarding because the team was able to visit a few gems, buildings, she said, that “instantly uplift the soul”. One such project was Pitches Store in the small settlement of Ophir, originally built in the 1880s and since refurbished to become a restaurant and hotel. “That was a definite highlight,” Kerr said. “It was wonderful to see how a single building could enhance the spirit of a town.” Similarly, in Cromwell, a new bus shelter and block of toilets, although utilitarian, are the first stage of a project heralding a “rejuvenation” of the public face of that historic town.

Architects Justin Wright and Nick Mouat, along with broadcaster Leanne Malcolm, joined Kerr on the Awards jury. Although there was much debate, the jury shared a similar response to the projects they visited. “There was a nice alignment in the way we thought and felt about the buildings,” Kerr said.

The jury members agreed that the redeveloped Toitu Otago Settlers Museum is a “remarkable asset” for Dunedin. The project unites various structures from different eras into a cohesive whole and does a good job of connecting the railway station to Queens Gardens, Kerr said. “It’s not just a museum honouring the history of the early settlers, it’s also a ‘museum of buildings’.”

While the scale of the museum is large, many of the award-winning buildings had modest budgets. “We gave a number of awards to houses that were not big or expensive,” Kerr said. For example, an energy-efficient suburban home in Wanaka and a simple bach at the mouth of the Taieri River, constructed in just eight weeks, felt so comfortable that the jury just “didn’t want to leave”.

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██ NZIA 2013 Southern Architecture Awards – winners information, citations and more photos at NZIA website

Recipients of 2013 Southern Architecture Awards

A building that successfully threads together stands of architectural history is a double Awards winner. Toitu Otago Settlers Museum in Dunedin has been transformed into a “living archive” and given a dramatic new entrance area by Baker Garden Architects and Robert Tongue Architect.

In awarding the project in the Public Architecture category, the jury commented that the contemporary glass addition not only provides an “entrance with clarity” but reconnects the museum to the city in a “physical and community sense”.

Toitu Otago Settlers Museum was also recognised in the Heritage category. The same architects had amalgamated a “unique aggregate of buildings” while skilfully managing to hide the “sophisticated environmental mechanics” of a modern museum to deliver a seamless visitor experience.

Smaller in size but just as significant within the context of community, Pitches Store was the second project to feature in the Heritage category. Michael Wyatt Architect’s refurbishment and sensitive restoration of this old stone store had kept the building’s “endearing rawness,” the jury said.

A new gymnasium in a Dunedin college and a modern study centre at the University of Otago were awarded in the Education category.

John McGlashan College’s gymnasium, designed by McCoy and Wixon Architects would, the jury said, lure even the most reluctant student to participate in physical education. With its views over a golf-course and its industrial materiality, the gymnasium “retains its individuality” while sharing a language with a community of existing school buildings.

Mason & Wales Architects’ redevelopment of the iconic ‘Gardies’ tavern recognises the “importance of the social” in the university context. The new Marsh Study Centre is not only a place of learning but, with its café and living area with a welcoming fireplace, is also a place of retreat.

The idea of refuge was explored by the same architects in Taieri Mouth Bach which, along with a bus shelter and public toilets, was acknowledged in the Awards’ Small Architecture category.
Mason & Wales Architects used a simple gable and “straightforward and robust” materials to capture “rawness” in this Kiwi bach which settles into the dunes, surrounded by fishing shacks. “If it were a poem, the building would be a haiku,” the jury said.

A pattern of falling leaves, cut in relief from a rusted steel sheet, brings a poetic influence to two workaday structures near the Cromwell Mall. Mary Jowett Architects’ clever design of this screen to provide privacy for the entrance of the public loo while simultaneously acting as a backdrop to the new bus shelter, achieves “lightness and delicacy” even while using a “robust and enduring” material palette.

Six private dwellings received awards – two in Wanaka, two in Dunedin and one each in Alexandra and Lake Hayes.

Awarded in both the Housing and Sustainable Architecture categories, Acland House by Rafe Maclean Architects is a family home in suburban Wanaka organised around three courtyards providing outdoor shelter from mountain breezes. The house also features hydronic heating in the floor and windows designed to act as “wind catchers” in the hot summer months.

The jury was understandably reluctant to leave when it visited Emerald Bluffs House by RTA Studio, also in Wanaka. The house enjoys views that celebrate its connection to landscape, enfolds as a “beautiful balance of private and collective spaces” and uses a tapestry of materials that “rewards all the senses”.

Further south, in Alexandra, Irving Smith Jack Architects referenced the tent villages of the gold-panning pioneers in a home built in a “raw and boundless landscape”. The home, with its insulated concrete core, tilted fly roofs and planning that is eccentric yet charming is, the jury said, “the original anti-villa”.

The first of the Dunedin duo in the Housing category of the Awards is a strong composition in black and white on Maori Hill. McCoy and Wixon Architects used an internal courtyard to imbue a compact design with a feeling of spaciousness. “Thoughtful and consistent” detailing augments the planning of this home constructed on a tight budget.

A steep site in the hills west of the city allowed Architectural Ecology to design a house that connects strongly with the vertical view of trees. The jury said the design of the Helensburgh Road House is “happily unafraid of complexity”. In keeping with the owners’ eco-friendly philosophies, sustainable timbers have been extensively used in a “multitude of exuberant forms” that cascade down the hillside.

Cedar, masonry and zinc are the material trio making up Lake Hayes Residence, designed by Warren and Mahoney Architects on a steep slope adjacent to a public walkway. The project, which comprises two forms and includes split-level flooring, was praised for its flexible planning which allows it to “morph between a comfortable home for two and a holiday house for wider family.”

The Southern Architecture Awards is a peer-reviewed programme of the New Zealand Institute of Architects. All recipients of 2013 Southern Architecture Awards are eligible for consideration for the top tier of the annual Architecture Awards programme, the New Zealand Architecture Awards. These awards will be announced in May 2014.

The New Zealand Architecture Awards are supported by Resene and judged by juries appointed by the New Zealand Institute of Architects and its branches.

Source: NZIA News & Media

ODT 16.11.13 Acclaim for great designs

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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

Proposed hotel, 41 Wharf Street – indicative landscape effects

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yours sincerely

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

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

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

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

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

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

2012 Southern Architecture Awards – NZ Institute of Architects

Thom residence, Waitati (top). Otago University Union redevelopment.

### ODT Online Sat, 24 Nov 2012
Awards reflect straitened times
By Nigel Benson
Innovation in a difficult economic climate was a feature of winning designs in the 2012 Southern Architecture Awards, announced at Forsyth Barr Stadium last night. Awards were presented for seven Otago projects, ranging from public changing rooms to houses and a hotel. The design of the winning projects reflected the challenging economic conditions in New Zealand, awards convener and Dunedin architect Niko Young said last night. “Even though times are tough, client expectations remain high. This has resulted in innovative architecture produced to lean budgets,” he said. “Architects and clients doing more with less is a theme of the 2012 Southern Architecture Awards. Such an approach often involves the reworking of existing buildings.”
The judging panel comprised Mr Young, University of Otago design for technology department fellow Michael Findlay, Dunedin architect Regan Hall and Auckland architect Nicola Herbst.
Read more

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██ NZIA 2012 Southern Architecture Awards – winners information, citations and more photos at NZIA website

New Zealand Institute of Architects NZIA)
The New Zealand Institute of Architects represents over 90 percent of registered architects in New Zealand, promoting and celebrating the role of architecture in enhancing the built environment.
● Is my Architect a member of NZIA? (directory search)
● Find an NZIA Practice www.architecturenz.net

New Zealand Registered Architects Board (NZRAB)
– registers architects who have been assessed by their peers as competent
– confirms every five years that architects continue to be competent
– maintains an online New Zealand Architects Register
– investigates complaints and, if need be, disciplines architects.

NZRAB: Is my building designer a Registered Architect?
● The New Zealand Architects Register
● Find an Architect

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

City planner’s report recommends against consent for hotel

UPDATED 21.11.12

See comments at this thread:

Ro https://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/dunedin-hotel-41-wharf-street-luc-2012-212/#comment-29089

Elizabeth https://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/2012/11/10/dunedin-hotel-41-wharf-street-luc-2012-212/#comment-29090

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“What Heydary found came as a shock, especially to some buyers who readily admit they were so blinded by the flash and cash of Donald Trump that they didn’t do proper due diligence: Buyers weren’t purchasing so much a condo as a share in a high-end hotel that, so far at least, is losing money.”

Trump Tower developer suing 7 disgruntled investors to close deals they now regret

Anonymous provided this edifying read. It ‘trumps’ what happened with the first tower built at Orewa, and the Spencer on Byron at Takapuna (referred to elsewhere at What if?, or google) – as far as 41 Wharf Street, Dunedin is concerned the tower-scam model is the same. So here we are, naive and wide open to the wiles of our own ‘good old boys’ and their unsavoury quest for a share of dirty-quick money from fickle overseas ‘connections’, and your life savings too.

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### ODT Online Wed, 21 Nov 2012
DCC report opposes city hotel
By Chris Morris
Plans for a 28-storey waterfront hotel towering over Dunedin have been dealt a blow by a Dunedin City Council report that criticises the design and recommends resource consent be declined. The report by council planner Lianne Darby, made public yesterday, identified the hotel’s height and dominant appearance as among areas of concern. A host of technical worries also raised doubts, ranging from traffic problems and shading to a lack of information about wind gusts magnified by the tower’s height. Ms Darby’s report left the door ajar by including a list of detailed conditions to impose if consent were granted, despite her recommendation.
Read more

Source: ODT Files

Note to graphic: Under the Resource Management Act (RMA) the commissioners to hear the application cannot consider the economic viability of the proposed hotel project – the matters with a red cross, at right, fall within the scope of the Act. The applicant is required to show the adverse effects of the proposed development are no more than minor.

Read Post Application Information at DCC website

‘New information’ about the hypothetical footbridge cannot be considered at hearing since it was NOT included in the notified application.

### ODT Online Tue, 20 Nov 2012
Hotel developer unveils link bridge proposal
By Chris Morris
The man promoting Dunedin’s proposed 28-storey hotel has unveiled plans for a “world class” pedestrian and cyclist bridge that could provide a missing link to the city’s waterfront. However, the idea is only the “starting point for a discussion”, with key details – including how much the sweeping structure would cost and who would pay for it – yet to be confirmed, Betterways Advisory Ltd director Steve Rodgers said.
Read more

Source: Ignite Architects Ltd (via ODT)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin Hotel, 41 Wharf Street (LUC 2012-212)

All submitters received a letter dated 2 November 2012 from Dunedin City Council informing them of the dates on which the Hearings Committee will consider the Betterways Advisory Ltd’s resource consent application for 41 Wharf Street, Dunedin.

The council hearings committee is Cr Colin Weatherall (chairman), Cr Andrew Noone and Cr Kate Wilson. Submissions will be heard in the Edinburgh Room, Municipal Chambers.

Hearing dates:
Monday 3 December 2012 – 9am to 5pm
Tuesday 4 December 2012 – 9am to 5pm
Wednesday 5 December 2012 – 10am to 7.30pm
Thursday 6 December 2012 – 9am to 5pm

And if required:
Monday 17 December 2012 – 9am to 5pm
Tuesday 18 December 2012 – 9am to 5pm
Wednesday 19 December 2012 – 9am to 5pm

It is anticipated the applicant will present for the first day and part of the second day. Submitters are likely to commence their presentations from 2pm on Tuesday 4 December.

Altogether, there were 508 public submissions. Not all submitters wish to be heard. That’s right, the applicant has about a day and a half to present substantively; submitters get 10 minutes each. Such is the democratic process.

The intention must be that if the Council grants consent – red carpet – then we take it to the Environment Court on appeal.

There has been no cost benefit analysis for the proposed hotel. Given the shortcomings of the site, neither the Applicant or the Dunedin City Council have declared the potential costs, including infrastructure services costs, of this project to ratepayers. There’s quite a lot the Council isn’t saying publicly; and quite a lot it’s saying, politically, behind closed doors to the applicant, we hear.

The Application: (DCC webpages)
● Current notified applications
● LUC-2012-212 (Betterways Advisory Limited) – all documents

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Published on May 13, 2012 by DunedinNZofficial

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Dunedin lawyer Steve Rodgers said he remained convinced the hotel would be a “game-changer” for Dunedin and was “98.2%” confident it would win approval at next month’s resource consent hearing.

### ODT Online Sat, 10 Nov 2012
Hotel project spokesman confident of go-ahead
By Chris Morris
The man acting as the public face for a proposed 28-storey waterfront hotel in Dunedin says the project remains “full steam ahead” despite a public outcry. However, Dunedin lawyer Steve Rodgers – the director of Betterways Advisory Ltd, the company fronting the development – would not rule out changes to the hotel’s design, but hoped a fight through the Environment Court could be avoided.
Read more

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Related Posts:
8.9.12 Waterfront Hotel #Dunedin (Applicant names?)
7.9.12 Waterfront hotel: DCC to notify resource consent application
16.5.12 Dunedin Hotel

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

New Zealand Urban Design Awards

“The importance of upfront investment in the public domain, whether by a public authority or private developer.”

### idealog.co.nz Fri, 9 Nov 2011 @ 9:24am
Auckland tops at brand new Urban Design Awards
By Design Daily team
Wynyard Quarter’s Jellicoe Precinct and the Auckland City Centre Masterplan have taken the top awards in the first-ever New Zealand Urban Design Awards, a new biennial programme that acknowledges the importance of high quality urban environments.

Jellicoe Precinct, Wynyard Quarter – Winner, Built Projects category

Wellington waterfront – Highly Commended, Built Projects category

[Images via Idealog]

Jury convenor, former New South Wales government architect Peter Mould, said they looked for projects “which established or reinforced urban initiatives and executed them with demonstrable design excellence”. “Urban design is concerned not so much with individual buildings, but with the building of a city. It’s about place making, and it’s also about the public realm.”

Mould said that if a trend emerged from the first Urban Design Awards, “it was the importance of upfront investment in the public domain, whether by a public authority or private developer. Such investment sets the agenda for excellence in the future”.

Waterfront Auckland’s Jellicoe Precinct, stage one of the development of Wynyard Quarter, was an exemplary case of agenda-setting urban design for which consultants Architectus and Taylor Cullity Leathlean and Wraight + Associates deserved congratulation as winner of the Built Projects category.

The New Zealand Urban Design Awards are supported by the New Zealand Institute of Architects, the Urban Design Forum, the New Zealand Planning Institute, the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects and the Property Council of New Zealand.

Joining Mould on the jury were planning consultant David Mead, landscape architect Sally Peake, deputy head of the University of Auckland’s School of Architecture and Planning, Lee Beattie, and property developer Patrick Fontein.
Read more + Images

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr