KEY POINTS:
More than 150 people, from a 12-year-old visionary to internationally renowned architects, have accepted the challenge of providing design concepts for a striking new bridge on Auckland's waterfront.
Entries in a design contest for the $35 million Te Wero (The Challenge) bridge which the Auckland City Council wants to build as a pedestrian, cycling and public transport link between Viaduct Harbour and the Tank Farm development have gone on display at Britomart Station.
The only common denominator in an array of wild and wonderful concepts is a need for the bridge to open - whether by being lifted, swivelled or retracted - to allow boats to enter and leave the harbour.
A five-member judging panel is keen to receive comments from the public before announcing on September 28 the finalists who will share a $10,000 pool of prizes and be invited to team up with technical experts to take their concepts to a higher level.
Each of about six teams will receive $20,000 to develop its proposals before the winning design is announced in April, ready for the bridge to be built in time for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard paid tribute to "some stunning ideas" embodied in the display which he launched yesterday.
"They are absolutely stunning - people who thought outside the square," he said.
"There's a design here from a 12-year-old - good on that 12-year-old person - there's designs here from some of the most prestigious names in architecture in the design area from around the world."
All the exhibits must remain anonymous until the judges deliver their verdicts, so visitors to Britomart will be left guessing between now and when the display ends on September 14 about which entry was the work of a child prodigy.
Mr Hubbard said if the waterfront was considered to represent the jewellery of Auckland, the bridge may well become "the diamond right in the middle of the cluster of jewels".
He said Auckland had obtained some world-class infrastructure in other international design contests, including its main museum from a competition called in 1925, and the $211 million Britomart centre.
"With this Te Wero bridge we've got a chance to make a statement about Auckland, a bridge that's defining, that symbolises what we stand for," he said.
"We've got our skates on for this project - we want the bridge completed for the Rugby World Cup so we can connect across the water there and can develop the marine events centre [an early part of the Tank Farm redevelopment] in time."
Judging panel member Richard Didsbury, a property developer who has led major Auckland projects such as the Vero Centre and Sylvia Park, said he was "absolutely blown away" by his first glimpse yesterday.
"If we were in any other city in the world, if we were in Berlin or London and ran the same type of competition, I don't believe we would have got any better demonstration of creativity.
