An eye for beauty ... and a fierce determination to save it

Allan Matson. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Allan Matson is leading a crusade to save his city.

For five years he has written letters, trawled through files and challenged the court as he works to protect Auckland's heritage buildings from demolition.

"I'm the arch enemy of councils," he said. The project, or obsession, has cost him his health and fortune. He has to borrow money to survive, and he keeps his expenses at "next to nothing".

It's a far cry from his earlier years. Mr Matson, 46, has a commerce degree, worked for 10 years in a bank, studied interior design and architecture and worked as a heritage architect.

So what prompted him to give it all up for a war on bureaucracy?

"I just hate ugly cities really," he said.

His battle with Auckland City Council stems back to March 2004 when he walked past a billboard advertising an apartment block to be built on the site that housed a beautiful blue building opposite his inner-city home.

Although clearly a historic building it was not protected by the District Plan, so Mr Matson set out to change the document, and ultimately to preserve the beauty of Auckland's built landscape.

Having travelled the world he knows the importance of preserving architecture.

But unlike many of the world's famous cities, Auckland, Mr Matson saw, did not place such importance on creating beauty in the built environment, which is what most city-dwellers must drive and walk through every day.

He does not like the "rubbish" that councils are letting developers build.

"New Zealand is not a wealthy country so we don't have the big budget to build beautiful buildings."

So he believes the city should save the special buildings it already has - the Fitzroy Hotel, the Jean Batten State Building, the 1970s wing and landscaped gardens of Auckland Art Gallery.

Some of the places he has tried to preserve have been flattened or gutted, but some have been saved.

"I have seen some disappointingly stupid lost opportunities," he said. Now he is trying to save Building 5 at Greenlane Hospital and heritage buildings on Hobson St.