Brian Rudman: Great Aotea pond idea not just for the birds

We all envy the waterfront location of Sydney's Opera House. Now we have the chance to create a waterside theatre complex of our own.

And no, I'm not reviving the pie-in-the-sky dream of a zillion-dollar theatre complex down on the tank farm alongside the harbour bridge.

My vision will cost next to nothing. It might even save ratepayers a penny or two and it's dead simple. All it involves is, once the $15 million emergency re-roofing of the underground Aotea Square carpark is completed, to cover it with a lake instead of reinstating the bleak and unfriendly desert of concrete.

It was a great idea when Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey first floated it back in 1993, and it's an even better one now, because the compulsory rebuild of the carpark gives it an economic and technical feasibility the critics claimed was lacking a decade ago.

Back then Mr Harvey argued that flooding the square would provide a more attractive setting for the centre.

"To me, this is a building designed to sit on a riverbank, not on a square. It would look fantastic from across a lake." He had a point. Not that he got much support.
Critics, of which there were many, included the head of the city's urban design section, George Farrant, who argued that the square was designed as a "democratic assembly place"and that flooding would sacrifice valuable open space for "minor cosmetic interest".

Questions were also raised about the impact the weight of the water would have on the structure below.

Mr Harvey's colleagues on the Aotea board of management eventually laughed it off the agenda.

It wasn't until March 2001 that we got a glimpse of his proposal. And what an attractive transformation it was. The occasion was The Launching, a theatrical "happening" to signal the resurrection of the Auckland Festival after decades in abeyance.

Centrepiece of The Launching was a Heath Robinson pond, built from $50,000-worth of plastic film used to line the sunken area of the square. Into this was pumped 450 cu m of water to create a huge knee-deep pond.

If we were honest, we were all drawn to it, seagulls and passersby alike. The only critics seemed to be a few grumpy skateboarders. Even Terry Stringer's monolithic bronze fountain seemed more at home than usual. And despite some nervous-nellying from the engineers, the carpark did not collapse.

Given today's report of the decaying condition of the carpark roof, though, that might have been more good luck than good management.

Sadly, a few days later the plug was pulled and it was back to the dour old concrete-slabbed "democratic assembly place".

To be honest, I haven't seen too much assembling over the years. The America's Cup celebrations was one exception, that riotous New Year party another. But its main use seems to be as a venue for a lack-lustre, tourist-targeted weekly market.

If a democratic assembly place is required, then what's wrong with the grassed space alongside? Or opening the doors of the Town Hall, which stands empty most day-light hours?

You only have to look about to know the city is not over-endowed with water features. A great pond in Aotea Square would fit in well with the philosophy behind the just-released redesign for Queen St, which bends over backwards to emphasise the golden mile's origins as a stream bed and aims to "reinforce the central business district's proximity to the harbour and Aucklanders' positive relationship with the water".

Planned is "a water sculpture at the Queen St entrance to Myers Park to celebrate the park and the Horotiu Stream valley on which it lies", and another water sculpture at the Wakefield St corner "to celebrate the origins of the Horotiu Stream".

What better way to celebrate water than to create a great water feature at the heart of the city's meeting place? And on a more practical note, the Aotea pond could act as a header-tank for the Wakefield St water feature and novelty gushers all down the valley.

Who knows, one could even be strategically positioned to swamp the ridiculous fake volcano outside the Britomart transport centre. What are we waiting for?