Decision a no-brainer, says urban designer

A new building would not deliver the intimate audience experience the Hawke's Bay Opera House offers, says urban designer James Lunday. Photo / Duncan Brown

Internationally acclaimed urban designer James Lunday claims keeping the opera house is "a no-brainer".

Mr Lunday was in Hastings this week to meet with the Independent Working Group (IWP) which has the job of coming up with options and concepts for the Hawke's Bay Opera House, municipal buildings and Civic Square.

It had been "road-testing" some of its ideas with a range of people with particular expertise, including Mr Lunday. That feedback would be factored into its preferred options before it presented its work to council in four weeks' time. At that point its ideas would become public.

Being able to see the inside of the opera house reinforced his belief it should be kept. He said the most successful international revitalisation projects had kept their historic buildings, giving city centres character, context "and architectural ambience".

"[The opera house] is a fantastic performance space. The way it is designed means you can have a really intimate audience experience. A new building will not achieve that - please don't throw it away."

Some of the major projects he had been involved in - in Glasgow in Scotland, Hastings in England and Bendigo in Australia, had been successful precisely because they had retained their heritage buildings, he said.

He is heavily involved in the Christchurch rebuild, and says one of the most difficult things about that project was that in the earthquake and ensuing demolitions, a lot of heritage was lost.

"It's impossible to replace it. Your opera house is unique and both buildings should be saved. Demolishing them would be a disaster."

On the development of plans for Civic Square, Mr Lunday urged the IWP to "be bold". He said buildings in the square needed to have "multiple faces" on to the surrounding streets, to encourage people to use them but he urged patience.

"Don't risk the long-term success for the sake of a couple of months. Once you've made the right decisions, you can claw that time back during the process."