KEY POINTS:
The Scene One, Two and Three apartment blocks are known locally as Obscene One, Two and Three.
So says Gordon McLauchlan in his book The Life and Times of Auckland (Penguin $40), on sale from September 29.
The Auckland waterfront apartment blocks between Quay St and Beach Rd are so horrid that Aucklanders have given them a new name to mark their offensiveness, McLauchlan says.
"Low-class buildings of various heights have been crammed on every square metre, with towering apartment buildings Scene One, Scene Two and Scene Three - tagged locally as Obscene One, Obscene Two and Obscene Three - dominating the skyline, redolent of early post-war state flats writ large," he writes in the last chapter on the city's history.
He calls the area "one of the most egregious, sustained acts of architectural vandalism in Auckland's history".
Tony Gapes, whose Redwood Group developed the blocks, defended them, saying he had never heard the nickname and people only criticised them because they were high-profile.
"As a development, it was extremely successful," he said.
The blocks were designed by Richard Priest and Walker Architects.
Mr Priest said he designed Scene One, where he owned an apartment, but left the job after becoming disenchanted. He did not design Scene Two or Three.
He had wanted to create a walkway to Vector Arena but said layout was constrained by Foodtown's truck access and Bayleys' assessment of the most saleable apartments.
The buildings were designed more for pragmatism than aesthetics, he said.
Design features included strong colours on the buildings' exterior and fins and varying balcony depths to give visual relief, Mr Priest said.
McLauchlan criticises "pragmatic architects and knock-down quick-rise developers" who he says show contempt for aesthetics or even the practicalities of civilised living.
Five years ago, the stretch of land between Britomart and the old Auckland Railway Station became available and was an opportunity for a spacious development of medium-rise apartments and commercial buildings with park-like spaces around them and a walking path and cycle track from downtown to Newmarket.
The result, he writes, has been "offensive to the mind and soul".
