Wellington waterfront
‘while commercial feasibility is a requirement for commercial development projects, design must be given great weight in deciding which projects are to proceed'
Wellington's Waterfront Framework states that the waterfront will be internationally and locally recognised for its design. So far, this recognition is emerging, and there is resounding public support for what has been achieved. By Chris McDonald and Graeme McIndoe
Wellington Waterfront in context: Parliament and railway station (left), CBD (centre), Waitangi Park
Historically, Wellington's rugged terrain has forced the city to embrace its harbour. The result is a linear CBD which is never more than two city blocks from the water. The potential benefits of this relationship were not realised until the 1970s and early 80s, when shipping activity began to consolidate around a new container port. Acting as intermediary between the Harbour Board and the Wellington City Council, a civic advocacy group brokered a deal under which the entire central city waterfront passed into municipal ownership and control. Critically, this occurred before port operations were restructured as a fully commercial entity. As a result, community input into waterfront development was assured, and the Council acquired X hectares of prime inner city land at little or no cost.
Wellington's first urban design competition produced a waterfront masterplan authored by a consortium of local architects. While their concepts won immediate popular support, a self-funding development process failed to produce high-quality public space. By 1996, the first fruits of the masterplan were complete, and prompted widespread criticism. The City Council declared a one-year moratorium on further development; abandoned the self-funding model; commissioned a new structure plan; and put in place new governance structures and delivery processes with increased public participation.
Design principles
Commercial activities are prevalent at the northern end of the waterfront. This area is contiguous with Wellington's finance district and, here, the development is conceived as an extension of the CBD grid. Even so, there is a deliberate mix of building types and scales. Ground floors are dedicated to retail space and other public or semi-public purposes. Some of the larger sites are expected to produce income for the project. However, all buildings exist primarily to shape adjacent public space and support its use. Vehicle movement is largely confined to a new laneway in which pedestrians have priority. This route is parallel to the water edge, and enables the waterfront promenade to be reserved for foot traffic. Ground-level car parking is restricted to the minimum number of spaces required for servicing and mobility impaired access.
Between Waitangi Park in the south and the CBD ‘extension'; in the north, the remainder of the waterfront divides into a series of loosely themed precincts linked by a common suite of materials and furniture. The current concept plan envisages remedial work on the existing structures and proposes new buildings to replace utilitarian sheds on some of the finger wharves. However, fears about privatisation, visual impact, lost heritage and increasing vehicle numbers have promptMore successful outcomes have occurred along the informal axis which joins Wellington's Civic Square to Te Papa, the National Museum of New Zealand.
Both these places pre-date the current waterfront project. However, the present public space framework delineates a clearer pathway and a stronger visual connection between the city's two most visited landmarks. Although partially complete, and lacking a crucial bridge across the intervening arterial road, the axis is already well travelled by tourists and a popular venue for public spectacles.ed persistent opposition to specific redevelopment proposals.
Achieving high quality design
Satisfying expectations of design excellence requires skilled designers. It also requires systems which can integrate this design capability, and processes which prioritise design quality at all levels. On Wellington's waterfront, it relies on a combination of factors including mayoral support, committed leadership within Council, informed management, excellent designers and expert design advice. The confidence and involvement of the design professions and their support for exemplary design has been vitally important.
A guiding vision is required, and in 1997 the concept plan established a clear direction for the project. The Waterfront Framework that followed does not prescribe design solutions but sets an explicit benchmark for quality, outlining objectives and principles that apply at all levels of consideration. This comprehensive benchmark is critical to establishing design briefs, and conducting design review. Other documents and processes including waterfront furniture and signage guidelines set an agreed direction and help to give consistency in the detailed design of elements across the waterfront.
An independent group advises on both design and process. Appointed by the Council, the current Technical Advisory Group includes recognised urban design, architectural and landscape architecture expertise. Made up of four independent consultants, this group provides general design advice; writes design briefs; and reviews every project and design-related initiative on the waterfront. In the contested environment of a public waterfront, this advice must be robust, and supported by an explicit rationale. The multi-disciplinary composition of the group and a collegial method of debating and reaching consensus on advice also help to achieve this.
Outcomes
While some groups and individuals consistently oppose waterfront redevelopment, annual opinion surveys conducted by an independent research company rate the waterfront's design very highly. The project is also highly regarded by design professionals. A recent survey of urban designers rated the Wellington waterfront first equal among successful urban design projects in Australia and New Zealand. Finally, a number of public space projects have received design awards including Waitangi Park which in 2007 won a New Zealand Institute of Architects Supreme Award for urban design.
‘all buildings exist primarily to shape adjacent public space and support its use. Vehicle movement is largely confined to a new laneway in which pedestrians have priority'
Leadership and governance
Wellington City Council owns the waterfront and directs its development. A Council-owned waterfront development company was established when the project started in the early 1980s. Separation of Council and its implementation agency continues to the present day. This minimises interference from a three-year political cycle, and allows the implementation of public space projects and building developments which extend over many years. However, decisions on the general direction of the project and on public funding are always made directly by Council.
Collaboration is formalised at a number of levels. A ‘Leadership Group' formulated the current Waterfront Framework in a series of open public meetings. Completed in early 2001, this document was successfully integrated into the city's statutory plan. Included in the plan is a requirement for all waterfront projects to be publicly notified. This provision allows the public to make submissions on all development proposals, and gives any submitter the right to appeal decisions.
At the same time, Council established a subcommittee to make decisions on the waterfront. This was also inclusive, comprising city councillors, representatives from the indigenous land owners, members of the general public and design professionals.
Waterfront design elements enhance the quality public space
The southern end of the waterfront has a strong recreational focus. Waitangi Park connects the project to marinas and a chain of inner-harbour beaches. The park's simple structure, flexible unprogrammed spaces and minimalist aesthetic are all consistent with waterfront-wide design principles. The park centres on a large flat expanse of grass. Amidst Wellington's hilly landscape and dense urban fabric, this space provides a welcome venue for informal games and large organised events
Wrapping around the inland edge of the park is the so-called ‘Activity Zone': a band of hard landscape with more prescribed characters and functions. Intended to distance the park's green heart from busy streets, the Activity Zone has become the most intensively used part of the site. It's a testament to the designers' skill that this area is also farthest from the water edge
Design competitions, used to achieve exemplary design, were used for the two major green open spaces on the waterfront. Similarly, almost all major building developments and refurbishments have been determined through a development/design competition. The very high expectations for design established by the statutory process on the waterfront ensures that while commercial feasibility is a requirement for commercial development projects, design must be given great weight in deciding which projects are to proceed.
The park's third structuring element is the ‘Graving Dock', a trace of the site's maritime history which is partly factual reconstruction and partly myth-making. When cost prevented full ‘excavation' of the imagined dock, this element was reconceived as a gently shelving beach and a series of containment ponds for the recovered Waitangi Stream. The Graving Dock and Waitangi Stream respond to two more waterfront design objectives: building a new ecological infrastructure and recalling the harbour's cultural and industrial heritage
Project details
Wellington Waterfront
http://www.wellingtonwaterfront.co.nz/
Christopher McDonald is Programme Director (BArch) at the Victoria University of Wellington, and a practicing urban designer; Graeme McIndoe is senior lecturer atthe Victoria University of Wellington. Both are urban designer
