Brian Rudman: Why not shift the art gallery to the waterfront?

I suspect I've already been removed from the Auckland Art Gallery's Christmas card list following the Khartoum Place fiasco so I might as well get right off side and question the proposed $90 million gallery extensions as well.

But given the importance to the success of the expanded gallery that the art establishment put on their plan to replace the suffragist memorial with a grand sweeping stairway, maybe they're now having second thoughts.

Their vision had been that passers-by would catch a glimpse of the improved gallery up the hill and be miraculously sucked up the stairs to commune with the art works. But now that the magic is off, and visitors will have to struggle up the existing stairway past the unaesthetic suffrage tiles, the nightmare for the gallery must be that people will wander past, oblivious to the treats above.

In that case, why not rehouse the art collection in a destination in its own right, down on the waterfront?

This is not an original thought, for sure. Heart of the City chief executive Alex Swney floated it a while back, suggesting that if the grand plans for the redevelopment of Auckland's waterfront were to succeed, what was needed was an iconic crowd-puller or two, a landmark exhibition centre perhaps, or a relocated art gallery.

With Ports of Auckland pushing its vision for the waterfront in one corner, and the art establishment busy closeted with redevelopment plans for its baby, Mr Swney's proposal rather sank for want of a seconder.

But I'm warming to it, particularly after seeing the futuristic, eye-arresting concept design by Amsterdam-based UN Studio, for a "gallery space" or some similar public-use facility, revealed earlier this week for the Wellington waterfront.

The design reminded me of Auckland gallery director Chris Saines' comments in July when he launched his $90 million renovation plans. "We want to make the gallery friendlier to families, more relevant to young people and more inviting to the community. With this in mind, we wanted a design that made the gallery feel as transparent and inviting as possible."

One look at the Wellington concept and I'm dying to visit it - and I'm not even exactly within Mr Saines' target age bracket. I can't say the Auckland gallery extension plans have had the same effect on me.

The worry about the gallery expansion scheme is the limited horizons adopted. The decision was made to try and grow on the tiny existing site, bound on two sides by roads, and the rest by Albert Park. This could only be done by filling in all the possible spaces between and around the charming existing 1887 French-style structure. The architect has managed to expand the display area by 50 per cent, but at the cost of severely compromising the historic old building.

Because of the limited footprint available on the existing site, there was no room to provide, for example, more on-site storage. That's been brushed aside as not essential. But I'm guessing it would not have been left out if starting from scratch.

Then there's an alternative. Instead of being scrunched up on the existing site, there's a wider, more attractive horizon down by the harbour. All told there's 18 hectares of publicly owned land about to be redeveloped along the waterfront.

Mayor Dick Hubbard was proud of the "outside the square" project he set up to consider options for Aotea Square, following the discovery of structural problems in the underground carpark. One idea was to move the public library a few blocks. If we can consider moving the library, then why not the art gallery?

With the Aotea visioning session in full swing, and the next stage of the waterfront visioning about to get under way - on Tuesday, Auckland City and the Auckland Regional Council are to launch their latest waterfront plans - isn't it sensible to add the art gallery plans to the mix?

The result could be the iconic structural drawcard that everyone seems agreed is necessary for the waterfront development, plus lots more space for Mr Saines and peace at last for the bicycling woman of the suffragist memorial in Khartoum Place.