$1.5m Viaduct lookout platform takes Aucklanders further into city's flashest marina

From a distance it looks as though you could walk straight off the edge of the sleek new Viaduct Marina lookout platform.

A step too far along the 30 metre wharf extension would see you splashing amongst the multimillion dollar yachts under the gaze of the swank new Park Hyatt hotel balconies.

You won't though.

Such is the sheer glass of the new $1.5 million lookout pier, that the edges will be seamless and barriers deceiving.

The structure's Maori name, Te Mata Topaki, fittingly means to "hover over the headland" and designers LandLAB architects said they aimed to "enhance the public's connection to the water" by it.

The unfinished viewing platform hovering over the Viaduct Marina was co-designed by LandLAB and Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei. New Zealand Herald photograph by Michael Craig

From November, this wood planked waterfront structure will allow Aucklanders to stroll a little further into the city's flashest marina.

The new lookout juts out from Waitemata Plaza promenade and was entirely privately funded by property group Viaduct Harbour Holdings.

Perhaps unbeknown to most Aucklanders, Viaduct Harbour Holdings own much of the Viaduct Marina and have in recent years made a concerted effort to enhance the promenade that will be the on-shore setting for the 2021 America's Cup.

Viaduct Harbour Holdings chief executive, Angela Bull, said the design of the structure had substantial input from local iwi Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei.

A view of Viaduct Marina from from the air with the Te Mata Topaki viewing platform as it will look on completion. Photo/LandLAB Provided by LandLAB

Auckland's Viaduct Marina lookout platform with the new Park Hyatt hotel in the background. Photo provided by LandLAB

"Viaduct Harbour sits squarely within Ngāti Whātua Ōrakei's kaupapa and their stories have been woven through Viaduct Harbour's public realm since it was first developed for America's Cup in 2000," Bull said.

"For example the pātiki (flounder) design in the brick pavement represents the values of hospitality, plentiful times and progression. The little nautilus shells at the top of each lamppost, these are all meaningful messages from ahi kā (title to land through occupation) that tell a specific story."

The new Viaduct Marina viewing platform faces onto the new Park Hyatt hotel. New Zealand Herald photograph by Michael Craig

The lookout pier roughly lines up with Auckland CBD's Customs St. New Zealand Herald photograph by Michael Craig

LandLAB architects Henry Crothers and Sam Gould designed the Te Mata Topaki lookout, with collaboration from iwi designer Graham Tipene.

The design process saw an originally simple wharf extension morph into a structure based on the shape of the stern of a waka - taurapa - lying on its side.

The structure's Maori name, Te Mata Topaki, means to "hover over the headland". Photo provided by LandLAB

The design process saw an originally simple wharf extension morph into a structure based on the shape of the stern of a waka - taurapa - lying on its side. NZ Herald photograph by Michael Craig