The laneways will provide an exciting and vibrant mix of retail, hospitality and artwork.
The laneways will provide an exciting and vibrant mix of retail, hospitality and artwork.
A world-class urban regeneration project will transform the midtown neighbourhood of Auckland’s city centre, as well as breathe new life into the Aotea Arts Quarter.
The project covering 4750sq m includes refurbishing the heritage-listed Bledisloe House and introducing connected active laneways.
But the masterpiece is the distinctive 21-level Symphony Centre built over City Rail Link’s Te Waihorotiu Station on the corner of Wellesley St and Mayoral Dr.
The site was formerly a car park used for Auckland Council fleet parking.
Symphony Centre is New Zealand’s first transit-oriented development orchestrated by international property and infrastructure developer Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB), well known for its Kuala Lumpur Sentral transport hub and business district.
The wedge-shaped $450m Symphony Centre is designed as a vertical village of retail, offices and apartments — live, work and play within the same building — and creates a new urban living model in the heart of the city.
The project is managed by Auckland-based consultancy RCP and construction is expected to start early next year once the exterior of the Te Waihorotiu Station is finished. The completion date for the dynamic urban regeneration project is late 2027/early 2028.
Cristean Monreal, RCP director and project development director, says the Symphony Centre will be an iconic building — “the shape is a piece of art in itself” — and it will give the city centre much-needed stimulus.
“People have forgotten the midtown area; it is a beautiful pocket with green spaces through to Q Theatre. It’s not hard to imagine working and living there.”
The Symphony Centre building will rise above the Te Waihorotiu station entrance and flow along Mayoral Drive.
Monreal says when City Rail Link opens, some 54,000 people will be streaming in and out of the Te Waihorotiu station — more than at the Britomart station.
“People create the vibrancy and the design and activated laneways support that. It will be phenomenal. It will bring businesses, as well as people, back to the area.”
The transit-oriented development and urban regeneration works like this. The Symphony Centre rises above the main entrance of the Te Waihorotiu station and flows along Mayoral Drive.
“If you imagine Aotea Square and draw lines off it at 45 degrees, that’s setting the plane of the building,” says Monreal.
The building kinks to the west and the floor plates get smaller as it gets higher. The Symphony Centre makes use of the sunlight and views over Aotea Square.
“It’s dynamic,” says Monreal.
The ground floor of the building is retail and the next 10 levels are commercial, providing 18,600sq m of office space.
The adjacent Bledisloe House, owned by MRCB, has 10,000sq m of office space as well as ground floor retail. Tenants can fit out according to their needs.
Monreal says Te Waihorotiu will be a busy train station and there’s an interchange on Mayoral Drive for buses heading west.
“The benefit for businesses in the buildings will be significant in terms of accessibility. The development will be appealing for local and central government agencies and private businesses.”
Auckland Council has moved back to the ASB Tower just across the intersection in Albert St.
The Symphony Centre provides 78 apartments across 11 floors.
“We like to build apartments with high amenity value that people call their homes — and every apartment has an amazing view,” says Monreal.
The “homes in the sky” range from one, two and three bedrooms and feature 3m studs and generous kitchens. The single penthouse on the smaller 21st floor is 320sq m in size with 63sq m of deck. The two sub-penthouses below are 219sq m and 201sq m with 31sq m of deck. There are a further three sub-penthouses on level 18, 159sq m, 210sq m and 174sq m in size.
The residents will have use of a gymnasium, multi-purpose hall, small movie theatre, and barbecue on the outdoor terrace. The apartments and offices will have seven Homestar and five Green Star ratings respectively.
Bledisloe House, built in 1959 with a post-war modernist design, is having a make-over.
The sun-shading louvre panels or eyebrows added to the building in the 1980s are being removed; the facade is being refurbished, and the ground floor will feature food and beverage and retail.
The back of the building will be opened to a new 12m-wide laneway alongside the Symphony Centre. People will be able to hop off the train and bus and walk straight through the Symphony Centre and Bledisloe House to the bustling laneways — the other one is in front of Bledisloe.
The sandstone terraced lanes will house cafes, restaurant and bars. Monreal says the lanes have been carefully curated in conjunction with Eke Panuku Development.
Cristean Monreal.
They will be heavily pedestrianised and provide a coffee-to-cocktails recipe.
“People can grab a breakfast in the morning on their way to work and then at the end of the day have a dinner and drink before going to a show,” says Monreal. “At present there’s not a lot on offer at that end of town.”
RCP is also collaborating with the Auckland Arts Foundation to introduce artwork to the area. Monreal says the laneways will knit together Aotea Square, Bledisloe House, Symphony Centre, Te Waihorotiu Station, Wellesley St and Mayoral Dr, creating a cohesive public space, strengthening the development and providing connections to arts and cultural facilities such as Aotea Centre, Town Hall, Q Theatre, Civic Theatre and Auckland Art Gallery.
“We have the opportunity to regentrify the area and bring the focus back on the Arts Quarter,” he says. “The Symphony Centre and laneways will not only be an architectural expression that will enhance the heart of the city centre but also a transit hub grounded in culture and connection for Auckland and the 54,000 daily commuters.”
Development team
Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad assembled an expert multi-disciplinary team in Auckland to create the country’s first transit-oriented development. They are development and project manager RCP; architect Woods Bagot; landscape and urban designer LandLAB; structural engineer Holmes Consulting; town planner Tattico; Tonkin & Taylor, for geotechnical; Mott MacDonald, building services; Cross Fire for fire engineering; Flow Transportation for traffic engineering; Cuesko, quantity surveying; designTribe, kaupapa Māori; and Icon Construction, builder.
· RCP and MRCB are advertising sponsors of the Herald’s Project Auckland report.
