Design group wants Birdcage returned to its roost

Motorway builders are under growing pressure from urban design experts to return Auckland's historic Birdcage Tavern to its existing site after completing the $430 million Victoria Park tunnel.

Although the Transport Agency has allocated up to $10 million to move the Birdcage 30m up Franklin Rd to make way for the tunnel's southern portal, it is resisting a proposal by architect and landscape specialist Richard Reid to return the two-storey brick building to the position it has commanded for 123 years.

But Mr Reid has been gathering widespread support for his plan, most recently from the Institute of Architects' influential Auckland urban issues group.

As contractors work through final design details for the tunnel and associated motorway widening through St Marys Bay, the group has asked Auckland City for the return of the Birdcage to be included in a revised master plan.

Chairman Shannon Joe said in a letter to the city council that the tavern was needed back in its original position, to retain and strengthen the historic line which formed part of Auckland's waterfront before the formation of Victoria Park.

He said the Birdcage and an adjacent public plaza proposed by Mr Reid would create a focal point for the Victoria quarter, complementing its character and identity and helping to form "a historical urban gateway into the CBD".

City development chief John Duthie said the council would raise the group's request with the Transport Agency to seek its views.

But agency regional highways manager Tommy Parker said his organisation had been unable to find a way to relocate the Birdcage without increasing the gradient of the northbound tunnel's entrance to an unacceptable degree.

Asked about a suggestion by Auckland civil engineer Peter Riley that the tunnel's roof slab be extended and tapered to avoid increasing the motorway gradient, he said the agency would keep looking at all possibilities.