Takapuna Loses Out On Parks

It appears that commercial and institutional backers of NOWSC (National Ocean Water Sports Centre), have given up trying to impose it on and around the Takapuna Beachfront Reserve (very good outcome - see my blog on that damaging proposal here), but are now intent on taking over the Takapuna Camp Ground. (An image from their new plans is shown here.)

One of the major debates had by the North Shore City Council I was part of between 2001 and 2004 was what should happen, now that the lease for the Takapuna Camping Ground had expired. (It must've expired about ten years ago, and they were seeking a renewal.) This was a major issue for that Council. About half the Councillors believed the land should revert back to reserve - which apparently was the promise when the Camping Grounds lease had been renewed perhaps ten years prior to that.

It was a close vote, but those supporting the Camping Ground lease being extended for another ten years - presumably to around 2012 - carried the day. I was one of those councillors who believed it should revert back to public reserve. I have always believed that Takapuna politicians - particularly those who served on the old Takapuna Borough Council - had not served their community well historically (and this is recent history) in terms of useful green space and attractive parks.

I recall that a number of the Councillors who voted for the lease to be extended said they believed that after that term was the time for the Camping Ground to be given back to the public.

Consider this map of Takapuna. You can easily see the small amount of beachfront reserve. Hurstmere Green is looking great and is very well used - a hard working piece of urban park if ever there was one. There is a good chunk of North facing reserve on Lake Pupuke - but no walkway all the way round - which is a real travesty. And there is Taharoto Park largely used for sports and reasonably sizeable. The reserve areas to the west are mainly either in the mangroves, on closed landfills, or in no-mans-land by the motorway. These western areas have stayed in public ownership and control because no-one else really wanted them.

Contrast Takapuna with Devonport, just down the road. This map of part of Devonport is to the same scale as the Takapuna one above. You don't have to be much of a rocket scientist to see how blessed Devonport is with fantastic public spaces, and how much it owes the vision and foresight of Devonport Borough Council politicians.

Yes I know - there is the matter of the public gaining North Head land and some of Takapuna Point from land that was surplus to the Navy. But that doesn't account for Woodhall Park, Alison Park, Ngataringa Park, the Cheltenham Beach reserves, the Vauxhall Sportsfields and Domain, Windsor Reserve (not even shown on this map), and Mt Victoria.

The fact is Takapuna is very poorly served with useable public space and good quality public reserves - especially public reserves that have views toward the Hauraki Gulf and Rangitoto, and access to the coastline. Those who believe that NOWSC's proposal to occupy even a corner of Takapuna's tiny provision of publicly owned beachfront reserve space is the right thing to do, the best use of that public space, are guilty of putting the public's interest a long way down their list of priorities.

A NOWSC is a great idea - but Takapuna should not have to give up public space to accommodate it.

Shanghai - Can't see wires for trees

This is a typical street scene in the French Concession area of Shanghai, China. All the Plane Trees are reminiscent of French cities - but we have a few streets like it in Auckland - such as Vincent and Franklin Streets. There are quite a few more streets in Auckland that are lined with Pohutakawa Trees....

Taking a closer look at the Shanghai Street scene is interesting though. Here I've zoomed in a bit... you can see a street light standard now... and you can see how the Plane Trees have been pruned...

Zooming in a bit more, you can also see a large pole in the streetscape. In fact it's a power pole. I hadn't really noticed it in a casual view (check yourself in the photo at the top of this blog - you can't see the power pole for the trees....)

I've included this picture so you can see the cables that are carried by that power pole. I imagine they are 440 volt cables - a bit like those in NZ. Power is supplied in cities in China at 220 volts AC.

This is another similar Shanghai streetscape. Look again at the power poles. You will see that the poles are painted in colours to blend in with the Plane trees - the lower sections of the poles are the same colour - generally - as the green of the trunks of the Plane trees - while the upper sections of the power poles colour match the different green of the main branches of the Plane trees.

...to better demonstrate this, I have cut out from the above picture, the power pole infrastructure. Somehow - while the Plane trees have been pruned to provide air space for the power cables, the type of pruning, combined with the careful camouflage colour scheme demonstrates a very good solution to the problem we have in Auckland and which is rather crassly addressed by the lines companies responsible for tree maintenance in our tree lined streets.

Here's another shot....

...and another... I know, I know. All you can see now are the power poles. But you didn't notice them till I drew your attention to them - did you.

Faux Park in Takapuna

This post is about small parks. My focus on them now was partly triggered by being in Beijing and Shanghai which are full of exemplary little parks at street corners throughout the city - and these parks are very well used. It is also triggered by what is threatened for one of Takapuna's reserves - that it be half or all taken up by the National Ocean Water Sports Centre. There are some advocates who genuinely believe it is the best use of that reserve land. My experience of park development is that it takes a long time to get a reserve/park right. You only have to look at how much effort and thought and planning has gone into Takapuna's Hurstmere Green to see how difficult it is. Some improvements work, and others don't. A successful public reserve or pocket park is the result of layered decisions over time. But what you don't do with reserve land - unless you have heaps of it - is allow it to be taken up by any group or building for a narrow set of uses that generally exclude the wider public. And that is what is threatened on Takapuna's Reserve land which is currently used as a camping ground. Enough of an introduction. I look now at a couple of little known Takapuna reserves/parks which are at the start of their lives.... Today I am calling them "faux parks". They are urban mistakes as they stand....

This is one of Takapuna's latest parks. It's at the corner of Lake Road and Esmonde Road. Mitigation for the road widening that occurred there, and which was designed while I was on Council. So I guess I share some responsibility - but there was huge concern at the removal of pohutakawa and the change in feel of the streetscape.

You can see there's a seat in the park...

Here's an aerial of the pocket park. So you can get an idea where it is located...

And here's the view from the park. Four lanes of traffic, with some grass in the foreground.

It's not a park at all. I would be very rare user of the seat.

It's a faux park. Built as mitigation for the road - in fact it provides a green backdrop for drivers. They get more relief from it than pedestrians - who hardly ever use it. Why would they?

It's a Park for Cars and their drivers. A Car Park. It's not a People's Park....

Here's another view of it from the car. Stopped at an intersection. You see how it works as bit of wallpaper for drivers. It fails to tick the boxes as a pocket park.

To be fair, nobody really expected it to be well used. But we need to learn from it. But have we....?

Just along Lake Road is another little park courtesy of the widening of Lake Road. You can see it here across a five lane road. You can see the bus stop, a piece of sculpture - eye candy for drivers - and you can see the houses that surround the park.

Here's an aerial before the landscaping work was done on the latest Takapuna Park.

At the bottom of the circle you can see a few pohutakawa which appear to have been removed.

There are no actual seats in the grassed area of this park. I took this photo looking out from the park standing in a little patch of gravel.

You can see the seagull sculpture, the back of the bus shelter, and traffic in the street, which gets very busy.

Quite nice you might think - despite the lack of seats....

But the park is surrounded very closely by houses. The classic urban design "thou shalt not" is committed here: house back and side yards fenced from the park.

And the same applies at the rear of the park.

Surrounding houses threaten the park and inhibit its use.

I've never seen anyone actually in the park. There's nothing to do, nowhere to sit, and it's off the beaten track. Why would you go there?

Great little street parks have pathways through them, so they are on the way, and there is informal surveillance from passing walkers....

The trees that were removed appear to have made way for this new paved area, with small new trees, and some uplights. The seats allow you to sit and watch the traffic go past.

There is no intimacy in this park. Seating is oriented so you must look at the traffic. Good urban design for small parks requires a sense of separation from traffic, while still providing for informal surveillance.

I'm afraid this is another Faux Park. A design copy of the typology of the Esmonde Road mitigation park.

It mainly serves as visual relief, as eye candy for passing drivers. The sculpture is for their benefit. This space doesn't function as a good community pocket park.

It needs activation, and some foot traffic. It needs access from the rear by means of a pedestrian pathway between houses. Perhaps one of the houses needs to be purchased to make a sensible space...

Shanghai: Corner Parks

It is hard to do justice the quality of public spaces and corner parks in Shanghai. This is one near our hotel. I got used to exploring it. You can see a piece of scultpture, green space, and an interesting shade area with seating.

This aerial from Google shows it. The hotel is the silver looking roofed building just across the road in this image. You can see that the park is on an intersection of six streets (not a classic cross roads), and there are walkways through the park so pedestrians can "cut" the corner.

Here's the little park from the footpath. One man asleep on a bench. In the heat of the afternoon the seats beneath the shade are packed.

Right in the middle of the park is this small enclosed area. It was popular this time of the morning, and a pedestrian thoroughfare.

I was struck by the care and attention to design detail in these little parks.

Here's another one just a bit further down Hengshan Road. A little corner park between two streets - also used as a shortcut - but also with seats under the trees - and gently shrouded from traffic.

This aerial shows you where that park is located. A small piece of land. Well used and valued - presumably - by the local community.

While I'm on the subject of parks, pocket parks, and corner parks in Shanghai - here's a video clip of one in Beijing - have a look at this one that was near our hotel - so I got used to exploring it. I shot this around middle of the afternoon. Auckland has a lot to learn about designed its little parks so they are attractive to a broad demographic, and safe to use.

And here's a Google aerial of the Beijing Park. Apologies for the picture quality - satellites must've taken these pictures on a seriously smoggy day. The top left of the circle is where the sculpture you see in the video is located, and you can see the streets that frame the park to the right, and bottom. Apart from the park, this image gives you an idea of how leafy Beijing streets are - not as good as Shanghai - but very green.

Government Policy: Road to Nowhere

This piece of writing ran in the new format Herald last week....I've added a few comments...

Government plans to take out loans to fund its flagship "Roads of National Importance" projects because of declining revenues from fuel taxes and other tax revenues.

But is building more roads - and even taking out loans in desperation - the best infrastructure answer to questions now in front of NZ's economic planners?

For example, new figures indicate a worrying increase in New Zealanders relocating to Australia. What needs to be done about that? Are kiwis less likely to live and work in Australia if New Zealand builds more roads?

There are increasing concerns about the fact that residential property prices are still going up. Some say it's because property is the only reliable investment in New Zealand. It’s become a heated market that the Government is anxious to dampen. 

However, an immediate effect of new roading projects in New Zealand is a proliferation of subdivisions and property development projects located a significant distance from existing urban environments. The lack of amenity associated with any resulting new housing means they don’t meet the needs of those looking for affordable housing near employment opportunities.

We have a government which is keen to deal with the issue of affordable housing on the one hand – but going ahead with infrastructure investment which is simply fanning the flames of expensive land speculation far from urban centres.

If government instead invested in urban infrastructure, rather than state highway infrastructure, it would trigger more commercial building development, an increase in skilled employment opportunities, the creation of urban environments attractive to skilled kiwis and international visitors, and make medium density housing desireable. 

Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter, is an example of urban infrastructure investment. Public money came from Auckland City Council and Auckland Regional Council,  and land came from Ports of Auckland Ltd. Public investment is in the streets and pavements, the gardens, public artwork, playgrounds and the like. Additional investment went into heritage buildings. It is all infrastructure. (Shifting the land from port purposes to public purposes is an infrastructure decision - much the same as taking land under Public Works Act for roading.)

Public investment is in the streets and pavements, the gardens, public artwork, playgrounds and the like. Additional investment went into heritage buildings. It is all infrastructure.

The benefits are exceptional: for a start there is a massive commercial real estate boom going on. The most obvious private sector development is the ASB bank HQ. That's the tip of the real estate economic iceberg. The anchor tenant is the urban infrastructure investment and the public space quality.

There's a lot else happening which has economic value. I challenge you to go down and sit at a table outside the old netshed on North Wharf about 5pm on a balmy sunny afternoon, Saturday, Sunday, Friday - whenever - and watch the promenading that's happening here in Auckland. You could be on the Mediterranean. Kiwis have style and they like to show it, given an opportunity. Photos of this phenomenon are getting around the world. People want to visit. Business wants to invest.  (Some argue this is only about Jafas having lattes and poncing about on the waterfront - but this is limited thinking and shows scant regard for what makes great places - people are attracted to people.)

New Zealand needs to be investing in the infrastructure of its cities and its urban centers far more than new roads. Singapore, Shanghai and Sydney are great examples on our doorstep. Municipal money was required for the urban infrastructure which encouraged private investment and the creation of great places to work, live and play. These cities would never have developed as they have if economic planners could only rely on Council rates to fund necessary infrastructure.  (And by the way - I am not only talking about Auckland here. Auckland is my example, but I am aware how Wellington's waterfront was changed by Government investment in Te Papa. That is urban infrastructure funded by Government. Other New Zealand Zealand cities can be similarly transformed by appropriate urban infrastructure investment which is difficult for Councils to afford and justify - especially as Government is keen to reduce the scope of Council activities to the bare minimum of local roads, rats and rubbish.)

Business has been calling for a convention centre in Auckland for a decade or more. However, in my experience it is not the lack of a convention centre that makes Auckland relatively unattractive for business conferences - it is because Auckland has not been a great place to visit. But with Wynyard Quarter that is beginning to change.

Many have mistakenly argued that a centrally located cruise ship terminal is an essential trigger for economic revival. It is assumed that because Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney all have significant cruise ship terminals, then Auckland needs one too to ensure economic success. But this is cargo-cult thinking. Success does not come from cruise ships. Cruise ships come to successful and interesting places, and they stay for long visits because passengers find so much to do and so many great places to visit. (I am not arguing against having a cruise ship terminal in Auckland. However that sort of infrastructure investment needs to be put in perspective against other options for public investment and options that generate the best big picture outcomes from scarce waterfront real-estate.)

Success does not come from cruise ships. Cruise ships come to successful and interesting places, and they stay for long visits because passengers find so much to do and so many great places to visit.

If Government wants to stimulate private sector investment in New Zealand, and bring business into our existing urban centres, and attract high value business into urban centres, and make New Zealand cities as attractive and brimming with creative high value employment and visitor opportunities as Australian cities - then it needs to find ways of investing in those cities (learn from Welllington's waterfront and Wynyard Quarter), and do more of that, and stop throwing money at roads that pale into economic insignificance in today’s urban world.  

Beijing Planning Exhibition Museum

One of the planning highlights was the visit to the Beijing Planning Exhibition Hall. This is a purpose built four storied building which portray's Beijing's urban form from 3000 years ago, to now, and also has a multi-media presentation of the planned city  20 years from now. It is used for education and for exhibiting the features of the city...

In the reception area is this bronze relief map which helps set the city in the ring of mountains and hills that surround it to the north. In part this topography explains the inversion layer that forms - as in Mexico and Christchurch - contributing to the smoggy atmosphere. The finger points at the Forbidden City - at the centre of Beijing. Now surrounded by five motorway ring round systems...

The Hall contains a separate model of the Forbidden City - buildings made in intricate detail...

Most interest is generated by the scale model of Beijing itself. This model is made to scale of 1:750 and covers a floor area of 302 square metres.

This is an extraordinary sight....

The model of the heart of Beijing is surrounded by a further 1000 square metre aerial photographic display - that Georgia is standing on here.

The CBD of Beijing is where high rise buildings may be built - along with one or two other areas of the city. Elsewhere building heights are restricted to 5 stories. This reminded me of Hamburg and other European cities where building height are restricted for a variety of reasons. In Hamburg it is to ensure that the city's gothic buildings are visible on the skyline. In Beijing it is to ensure - in part - that the Forbidden City is not dominated or overlooked by modernity...

You can get an idea here of the low rise spread of parts of Beijing....

Some city architecture is eye-catching.

This short video clip shows the model in "daylight"....

The Exhibition Hall features a number of multi-media displays. This one shows the city in various lights and begins introducing the development planning...

This clip is part of the laser light show, and ends on the BirdsNest Olympic Stadium. Fantastic.

Beijing Building 798 Art Adapted

Auckland Planning students visit Building 798 in Beijing. It is an excellent example of adaptive reuse of a cluster of industrial buildings.... The whole zone covers an area of 0.6 square kilometer, with Jiuxianqiao Road to its west, Beijing-Baotou railway to its east, Jiangtai Road to its south and Jiuxianqiao Road North to its north. 798 Art Zone, characterized by modern art, has become the exhibition center of Chinese culture and art, and also a world- famous cultural and creative industries centralized area...

We really didn't know what we were in for. Just inside the entry way was this pile of shipping containers - a new form of medium density housing...? windows...? doors...?

The relevance of this case study to Auckland is that it is an example of an set of relatively recent factory buildings being re-used for a cultural purpose. ie not demolished to make way for new commercial or residential developments.

The industrial factory history and some other histories are remembered throughout the huge site...

You can see a good description of the history of the buildings and site (built in 1951 - so very recent - much more recent than the sheds and other buildings that need better recognition in Auckland and New Zealand...), here at Wikipedia.

There are some traditional galleries, for traditional artists, but also cafes, book shops, other souvenir shops. Industrial artifacts from the military factory past remains.

According to the China Travel Guide: "The area occupied by 798 Art Zone was once the place for Beijing North China Wireless Joint Equipment Factory. Afterwards, the corporation moved out of the Dashanzi District and leased those plants (798 factory being one of them). The architectural style, featuring simple design and varied composition, follows the Bauhaus way. Attracted by ordered design, convenient traffic, unique style of Bauhaus architecture, many art organizations and artists came to rent the vacant plants and transformed them. Gradually there formed a district gathering galleries, art studios, cultural companies, fashion shops etc. As the area where the early art organizations and artists moved in was located in the original area of the 798 plant, this place was named 798 Art Zone...."

There were many, many galleries, and all sorts of artwork and styles on display... made me wonder where Auckland might have an equivalent...

Porcelain and sculpture and paintings were on sale. More traditional bracelets and other tourist items were also on sale - by local or indigenous Chinese people one of our Chinese student buddies told us - you could tell by their dark skin apparently...

Great stones and other artifacts from factory days are scattered throughout the site - which feels a little like a village within a city. It covers most of a Beijing city block...

You never quite know what you'll come across around the next corner. Quite a place of discovery.

Some of the spaces are good just to sit and contemplate...

...figuring out where your next snack or coffee or treat will come from...

...and everywhere there are artists of all sorts and styles planning or making their next creation...

...oblivious to me and my camera...

...there is a lot of figurative art in this establishment, and not a lot of what might be termed landscapes and scenery... people and society or communities make up a lot of the subject matter... reflective of the culture in China I think... people and communities matter more than things and money... though that may be changing for a section of the population as market oriented reforms gain a bigger foothold.

This guy's checking out where he is and what's next on his list of galleries to visit. Found him in a gallery dedicated to Chairman Mao...

This staircase was not part of the original factory, and was built as an add-on later. Interesting that it's made of brick...

...this piece of artwork is about 8 metres high - it features a huge metal screw shape in the middle of a building frame. I wasn't sure what it meant. But I understand these screws can be used to take rubble down when demolishing - but this building shape looked as if it represented construction rather than demolition. Who knows...

And this was just an existing staircase from the factory days, used to get between floors in this particular gallery.

Wasn't entirely sure whether this was art - but these girls were certainly modelling wedding dresses and being photographed. Great location and backdrop maybe for a magazine shoot...?

If you look closely here - you will see evidence of me and my camera. To the left is the outfit for the business man who has everything - except antlers, and a camouflage jumper.