Loud politics, no PC on the side

█ Only in the cartoonist’s dreams….
Garrick Tremain 25 Jan 2017

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█ Only in America says a reader….
The Strip, Las Vegas 21 Jan 2017

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█ Only in the European Parliament….
#freespeechisbeautiful

Euractiv Uploaded on Feb 24, 2010
Nigel Farage insults Herman van Rompuy, calls EU President a “DAMP RAG”
MEP and UKIP leader Nigel Farage on Wednesday delivered another major tirade against EU President Herman van Rompuy and, along the way, severely insulted Belgium and Greece during a plenary debate in the European Parliament. Farage said Van Rompuy has the “charisma of a damp rag” and the appearance of a “low-grade bank clerk.”

Farage thinks Donald Trump will be a good President.
See his UK Telegraph opinion piece (20.1.17) cited at the post Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States of America.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

This post is offered in the public interest.

Uglies: Black-tie at 715 George

715 George St, corner Regent Rd, Dunedin

█ Clan Construction Commercial Ltd
http://www.companies.govt.nz/co/4013678

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### ODT Online Thu, 10 Dec 2015
Student apartments going up
Construction has begun on six new student apartments at the corner of George St and Regent Rd, Dunedin. The 962sq m triangular-shaped site is owned by Straits International Ltd, and was the site of a service station for about 80 years. The Dunedin City Council has given resource consent for the company to construct four residential units in a two-storey building (block 1) and two residential units in a three-storey building (block 2), thereby creating 22 habitable rooms. Construction is expected to be completed next year.
ODT Link

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Comments at ODT Online:

Student apartments
Submitted by Barnaby on Thu, 10/12/2015 – 6:35pm.

No! This was not a service station site for 80 years. There was a beautiful two-storey substantial brick heritage house on this site until about the 1970s. This is just another step in the incremental loss of North End heritage. This shows very poor planning from DCC, making this part of town, and the main street in this case, an ever expanding precinct of badly designed cheaply built high density housing. These will add to the stock of other similar structures forming “North Dunedin’s slums of the future”. Ratepayers’ will probably end up funding the future purchase of such cheap accomodation to mitigate associated social problems and the appalling visual amenity. Very poor city planning indeed.

Habitable room disasters
Submitted by ej kerr on Fri, 11/12/2015 – 12:43pm.

Prominent George St corner sites are being trashed by the banal. More habitable rooms – No emphasis on good contemporary design, no flair.
This one’s built right to the footpath on the main street, with little modulation and no hint of garden or vertical planting possible, except something to the corner part-screened by the witless bus shelter shoved on its concrete pad.
Given the rich inheritance, where has Dunedin street architecture gone? Where are the design professions? Why so much visual erosion? Where is the NZ Institute of Architects? Why no City Architect Office and independent Urban Design Panel to uphold design values for Dunedin residents and ratepayers?
Ugh! DCC planning fail. DCC urban design fail. DCC district plan fail. When will DCC grow up – to promote sympathetic edgy contemporary architecture and design for major city axials, at the very least. A step up from turning Dunedin into bog city with tawdry gateway approaches.

Related Posts and Comments:
[distasteful]
6.1.14 George Street: Two new uglies (thanks DCC, no City Architect…)

[sensitive]
9.1.14 Facadism: 3%, 10%, 50%, 75%, 99.9% (how much is enough) | University of Otago warps Castle Street

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: misted lettered tweaked by whatifdunedin

Vogel Street Party —Sat, 10 October

Admission: FREE

The inaugural Vogel Street Party was held last year in conjunction with the first ever Dunedin Street Art Festival; this year’s event will again be staged in the warehouse precinct and will collaborate with the Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature group for a party themed around Literature and Light.

LITERATURE To celebrate Dunedin’s creative city status as a UNESCO City of Literature Dunedin, New Zealand. You can find us sitting alongside only 10 other cities in the world that hold this status, including Edinburgh, Melbourne, Dublin, Prague & more.

LIGHT As 2015 is the International Year of Light, the VSP will be Dunedin’s major effort to join in the world-wide celebration of light and light based technologies.

The events, exhibitions and activities will follow these themes and showcase the talent and creativity we have hidden in our city.

The Vogel Street Party 2015 — fun attractions for people of all ages.
PARTY STARTS 10 October at 3pm.
Note start times vary for Open Hours at Heritage Buildings.

█ Webpage: http://vogelstparty.nz/

█ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1611938749075531/

█ Download: Vogel Street Party PROGRAMME

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OPEN Buildings [excerpt from programme – click to enlarge]

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Vogel St. Street Party | Saturday 18 Oct 3pm – 11pm [2014]

Updated post 7.11.14 at 6:18 p.m.

What change, collaboration and vision can do!

[click to enlarge]

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████ Download Map Guide for activity locations and booking information at http://vogelandbond.org/assets/VogelStreetPartyGuide.pdf

Related Posts and Comments:
█ 19.10.14 Dunedin: Randoms from inside warehouse precinct 18.10.14 [photos]
█ 22.6.14 Vogel Street Heritage Precinct (TH13) [photos]
5.8.14 DCC staff-led CBD projects that impact ratepayers | ….council debt
28.9.14 “DCC entitlement” about to ramrod change at CBD #manipulation

█ Photos by Glen Hazelton (Tumblr)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Vogel Street Heritage Precinct (TH13)

Street improvements under way for the redeveloped warehouses and other commercial buildings in the heritage precinct, including new light stands, plantings and protrusions — photographed last Saturday (14.6.14). Highly coloured seats and rubbish bins have yet to be installed. Read more about the project here.
Click map to enlarge.

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Bike stands and a light stand outside Queens Gardens House, cnr Rattray Street:

Light stand outside Phoenix House (45 Queens Gardens):

Looking south from Phoenix House along the west side of Vogel Street:

Looking north from Phoenix House to Queens Gardens:

Former NMA buildings (note badly scaled and positioned sign):

Landscaping and protrusions for safe crossing:

Other views (including the former Donald Reid Store at 77 Vogel Street):

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Warehouse Precinct Revitalisation Plan (PDF, 3.6 MB)
This Plan seeks to support the revitalisation to ensure the important historic Warehouse Precinct area becomes a vibrant and successful part of the central city, once again.

Dunedin Warehouse Precinct by Alexander Trapeznik, 2014, 188 pages with map and illustrations (PDF, 9.91MB)

Dunedin’s warehouse district is a newly rediscovered treasure. Spanning the few blocks stretching from the harbour-side to Princes Street, from Queens Gardens to the Oval, for many years this area slipped out of the public eye. The grid-pattern street layout contains a dense mixture of commercial and industrial buildings, typically between two and four storeys high. Many have a decorative façade to the street and plain brick or masonry walls facing their neighbours. Some became derelict, others home to a variety of uses. A few have been demolished to create car parks. Recently, many of the buildings have become the subject of renewed enthusiasm, being strengthened, refurbished, repainted and valued once again. –Trapeznik

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Post and images by Elizabeth Kerr

Facadism: 3%, 10%, 50%, 75%, 99.9% (how much is enough) | University of Otago warps Castle Street

University of Otago OUCA Childcare Centre
541-559 Castle Street

Architects: Parker Warburton Team Architects
Structural and Fire Engineers: Stevenson Brown Ltd
Main Contractor: Amalgamated Builders Ltd (ABL)

The university is building a new childcare centre in Castle Street, opposite the historic Selwyn College, on sites formerly given to a row of timbered bay villas. The facility will provide room for 140 equivalent full-time (FTE) children – boosting childcare capacity at the university by 50%. Years ago, the houses together with others like them were mooted for demolition to provide new lecture theatres. Along came work on the Campus Master Plan to change that and what is now the decision to save the ‘appearance’ of the villas to the street – with a ‘small-person village’ tucked in behind. It’s facadism, and it’s terribly thin. The villas weren’t listed for protection in the district plan.

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On completion, the new childcare centre will probably collect one or more NZIA Southern Architecture Awards based on ingenuity, subtle(?) mixing of ‘kiwi’ Disneyland veneer, concept, scale, well-programmed function, urban design, and finishing. After all, the university has spent $200,000 on the design and used award winning architects. But is it kosher to slice the bays off period villas and ‘reconstitute’ them by nailing onto new buildings? Not sure, will wait until the opening in March to finally pronounce.

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In the meantime there’s no debating that scale and proportion are correct, and the design has sensitivity on many counts. Will the built linkages, with under-roofs, between buildings read correctly and convincingly to the street? Does it matter anyway, given the facility replaces buildings the university fudged and devalued over many years for temporary use? The landscaping to street and within the block will be superior. What’s not to like?

Possibly, the ‘what’s not to like’ is that others in the building design trade will try to mimic (badly) the facadist tactics – the ‘chainsaw precedent’ having been set – as they gormlessly, constructively, work to erode historic heritage values of individual buildings and townscape values within some of our better but neglected Victorian/Edwardian era residential streets. Like streets in the North Dunedin campus area where tight sections and medium building density are found; places where developers having landbanked aren’t of a mind to fully demolish. Whether this turns truly bad, like all building fashions, will depend on the number of occurrences and scale of endeavour. When you do something (was it) cutting edge, it’s the followers you should worry about.

In its favour, this ‘academic’ dalliance with facadism, chainsaw-massacre or whatever it’s called – and alright, the institutional client has a reasonably high standard of architectural design and heritage-retention – is aesthetically far superior to the ‘piss-poor’ gouges and severe ghetto-esque rebuilds now going on in former working cottage character streets, like Grange and Leith.

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Otago Bulletin Board
Uni News: Site of new Childcare facility blessed
The new state-of-the-art facility will offer places for significantly more children than the existing centre in Great King Street, and will include a bilingual centre, landscaped external play space, dining and quiet sleep rooms, as well as non-contact and administration areas. All 11 buildings on both the Castle Street and Montgomery Avenue sides of the project will be demolished, with the exception of the period Edwardian facades of the five villas on Castle Street which will be restored. Property Services Project Manager Christian German says “The condition and arrangement of the existing buildings, as well as the need to carry out seismic strengthening, means that re-building is the most cost-effective option. However, by retaining and restoring the villa facades, the view on Castle Street will be improved without changing significantly.” The facility will provide 140 full-time equivalent (FTE) child places, including 28 nought- to five-year-olds in the bilingual centre. There will also be two nurseries and two whānau units each catering for 40 two- to five-year-olds.

*restored is a loaded word

Otago University Childcare Association
The OUCA has four new childcare centres under construction on Campus, opening April 2014. They will sit alongside Te Kaupapa ō Rōpu Tiaki Tamaiti (College Centre) 137 Union Street East. All children enrolled at the existing Nursery, Preschool and Fulltime Centres will transfer to the new centres. Link

ODT Coverage:
8.1.14 Photograph, site view (page 14). University childcare centre takes shape. Peter MacIntosh. No link available.

14.8.13 ‘Good progress’ at uni childcare facility site
The facades of period villas in Castle St were being removed for repair and restoration. These facades would be retained as part of the new development in their original positions opposite Selwyn College. Link

18.7.13 University child-care site cleared
University plans to build a $6.25 million child-care centre in Castle St are moving closer to reality as demolition work continues. Eleven buildings, in Montgomery Ave and Castle St, will be demolished to make way for the project, although the facades of five Victorian villas in Castle St will be retained. The new centre would include landscaped internal play space, as well as dining and quiet sleep rooms. Link

13.6.13 Blessing for childcare centre
The childcare centre would integrate three current centres into one. “The concept is a village for children on campus with lots of trees and natural materials.” Demolition of existing buildings on the site is scheduled to begin on June 24, and the centre is scheduled to open next March. Link

4.4.13 University plans major building projects
The only large new project on which the university has publicly committed to begin construction this year is a $6.254 million childcare centre in Castle St. The draft design for the centre was almost complete and construction was to begin in June. Link

22.12.12 New daycare centre
The university plans to build a new “state-of-the-art” childcare centre on Castle St next year. The centre would be located on Castle St opposite Selwyn College and retain the Edwardian facades of existing villas. The need for earthquake strengthening and the condition and arrangement of the existing buildings meant rebuilding was the most cost-effective option. $200,000 was spent on the design of the new centre, but the construction budget was under wraps. Once the new centre was built, the facility on Great King St would revert to accommodation or academic use. Link
Sketch of the new eight-gabled building. Montgomery Avenue elevation.
Parker Warburton

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

158 Rattray Street (Tai Ping), suspicious fire?

Google Street View

### ODT Online Tue, 23 Jul 2013
Tai Ping badly damaged by fire
By Rebecca Fox
Well-known Rattray St food bar and restaurant, the Tai Ping, has been extensively damaged by fire. Smoke from the central Dunedin blaze, which was reported about 9.24pm, was so thick it set off smoke alarms in about six other buildings, some as far away as Moray Pl. Fire appliances had to be called in from Ravensbourne and Port Chalmers to help clear those buildings, while crews from three appliances and a turntable ladder truck put out the fire. Tai Ping owner Henry Chin said his wife was at the back of the premises, preparing food, when the fryer at the front of the shop overheated and caught fire. “She didn’t realise until it caught hold.” If there had been customers in the shop it would have been caught before it got to that stage, he said. He had gone home to pick up their children for tea.
Read more

We’ve been keeping a watching brief on the buildings at 150-170 Rattray Street in past months, for good reason, now this. The old fryer trick when no-one’s about much . . .

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DCC reviews Commercial Use of Footpaths Policy

### ODT Online Sat, 26 Nov 2011
Move afoot to ban pavement signs
By David Loughrey
Footpath advertising in Dunedin, whether simple chalk messages or a recent stencil and water blaster method, will be banned if a recommendation to the Dunedin City Council gets support on Tuesday. The ban will only target commercial messages, though, with non-commercial advertising subject to a new permit system.
Read more

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While the council was committed to supporting and enhancing local business and a vibrant and active street life, there “needs to be some control over the placement of objects on the footpaths to ensure there is always a safe and unobstructed passage for pedestrians of all abilities, and to ensure the visual amenity of our streetscapes is not detrimentally affected.” -Report

Report – PEC – 29/11/2011 (PDF, 247.4 KB)
Review of the Commercial Use of Footpaths Policy

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr