KEY POINTS:
Stand at the bottom of Queen Elizabeth Square today and, beyond the red wharf fence, Bledisloe Wharf containers and cranes are glimpses of the promised land: the harbour, Rangitoto and North Head.
Across Quay St lies the city basin, framed by the Ferry Building and Queen's Wharf on one side, Captain Cook and Marsden wharves on the other.
This is the waterfront jewel most-prized by Auckland City for transformation into a people-friendly precinct, with cafes and promenades connecting the harbour with the heart of the CBD. The port company has pledged to concentrate operations to the east and free up Queen's Wharf within the next decade. The council has plans to divert traffic away from Quay St and create a boulevard. But even with a translucent facade, a 37m-high stadium - about the height of a nine-storey building - will dominate the precinct and create a solid visual barrier across a wide arc.
Properties overlooking the site, including the Britomart heritage buildings and the Scene apartments on Beach Rd, fear the short-term noise and long-term visual impacts. "In terms of people wanting to rent and see the harbour, it will be right in front of us," said Scene One building manager Greg Farrant.
Port company chief executive Geoff Vazey can see the irony: "Every time we've pulled down a shed on the wharves we've been applauded."
Architects say the site is far from ideal for a stadium and reel off the design obstacles: the massive investment needed in piling and underground services; access and egress difficulties, a shortage of parking, and public transport limitations.
Speaking before yesterday's announcement, Mr Vazey said the port company would need to reclaim about 5ha from the harbour, off Bledisloe Wharf, for replacement port facilities. Reclamation would need resource consent, a drawn-out process which could scupper any hopes of vacating the wharves by May to begin piling work. The Government says there are ways around the port's concerns, including special legislation.
Rough estimates for the stadium bowl alone start at $550 million but critics say the overall development could top $1 billion.
"It will need to be a fine piece of engineering and architecture to pull it off - and costs will escalate," said an architect associated with several recent public buildings in Auckland. "Time is the biggest factor - if it had been envisaged three or four years ago they might have come up with a sensible solution."
Gordon Moller, co-convenor of the city's urban design panel, has led the architectural outcry.
"The waterfront is at a critical stage - it's all there waiting to be realised," says Moller, who was involved in the Viaduct Harbour development, lives there, and remains "staggered" at its pulling power.
"Why tarnish this area with a monolithic inward-looking stadium?
"It seems they've gone mad over this one building. New Zealand has very limited ability to fund projects like these."
Professor John Hunt of the Auckland University architecture school says the CBD is compact and a large stadium will constrain opportunities for portside redevelopment.
"I think all the waterfront area, including Wynyard Pt, is just a no-go for a rugby stadium."
The university's emeritus professor of architecture, Peter Bartlett, says opportunities to redevelop the finger wharves with low-scale cultural activities could be scuppered.
Yet supporters see the stadium as the catalyst for the very things the design community fears will be lost.
"Imagine the legacy [of the Rugby World Cup] being the city basin - Marsden, Captain Cook and Queen's Wharf - opened up for the people," says Heart of the City's Alex Swney.
"The ports have no plans to return that to us - they ain't friends of ours."
Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard said the city council plans to work with the Government to ensure the proposed stadium achieves the council's urban design objectives.
"You can't turn it into a Sydney Opera House or a Guggenheim Museum but we want the next level down," he said.
"It can't just be a bowl dropped on the waterfront area. You may have buildings in front of it so it's not just a big stadium wall, and possibly buildings around it so it actually blends in.
"It lends itself to a multitude of uses, conference rooms and so on. All sorts of possibilities open up to the imagination.
"It's quite a challenge but our urban design people think that challenge can be met.
"I come from the business community where to get things done sometimes circumstances dictate a reasonable amount of speed. Sometimes instead of ready, aim, fire, it's ready, fire, aim."
