Peter Curson: Heritage lost in a sea of tatty alterations

A couple of years ago, after a visit to Auckland, I wrote a piece about my reactions to the destruction of the historic inner cityscape and how a once classical and comprehensible cityscape had become a devastated landscape.

So what have a couple of years and a change in city governance delivered? Very little, I am sad to report, and the debate about the trees lining Queen St seems like arguing about what do with someone who has already died.

Certainly the trees added to the charm of Queen St, but only in the way that an artificial palm tree or a series of wall-mounted prints in the entrance foyer of a modern tower block address the green movement's concerns about the environment.

When I arrived at Auckland Airport I discovered - hidden at the bottom of one of the tourist brochure racks - a small, handsomely produced booklet titled Auckland City - Heritage Walks.

This excellent publication sums up in a few pages what remains of Auckland's wonderful late-Victorian and early 20th-century architectural splendour. All these marvellous old buildings are "protected" from demolition, damage or alteration.

Given that the old His Majesty's Theatre and countless other buildings were protected in much the same way, some scepticism can be excused.

If you undertake the recommended heritage walks, the overwhelming sensation is one of searching for an oasis in a desert, for although the buildings are still there - or at least their facades are, behind which often lurks a monster of steel and glass - they are lost in a sea of alterations, modifications, additions, awnings, transitory shop fronts and glass and steel tower blocks.

The comprehensible, intelligible city centre is gone, replaced by an extraordinary clutter of small food shops, tatty souvenir shops, clothes shops, discount stores and office buildings.

An important part of this is the proliferation of awful apartment blocks on the fringes of Queen St with tiny rooms and balconies looking out on blank walls of neighbouring apartment blocks or on to heavy traffic. This was not the Auckland that I remembered.

Central Auckland should be a microcosm of New Zealand life, democratic, open to all, where all groups of people can interact, intermingle, identify with the city, shop, eat, go to a movie or show, and yes, live.

The volume of traffic that travels through Queen St and adjacent streets remains daunting. Buses, cars, trucks and delivery vehicles compete unequally with people. Queen St and High St should be pedestrian malls.

Lying alongside the Heritage Walks brochure was a smaller booklet titled The University Heritage Trail.

In this beautifully illustrated publication is a part of Auckland's heritage that few Aucklanders or visitors see. The university precinct cut off from downtown Auckland by the lovely Albert Park, includes an array of fine historic houses and buildings.

At the bottom of Queen St, opposite the truly awful Downtown Centre, sits the stately old CPO, now converted into an impressive foyer for Auckland's downtown Britomart station.

A great idea, sympathetically preserving an important part of Auckland's past - but where are the rail commuters? The inside hall and platforms seem largely deserted, the handful of traders swamped in a sea of indifference.

How do you get people to travel by train in Auckland? Well, first you need a service that puts an emphasis on accessibility, punctuality, reliability, comfort and relative speed. Does Auckland have these things? I doubt it.

The amount of money going into motorway and road construction in and around the city centre suggests that rail travel is not highly valued. The system needs to be electrified.

Second, there must be a link to the airport. Negotiating motorway traffic to get into central Auckland at or near peak hour is akin to Chinese water torture.

Third, there must be a light-rail or mono-rail system linking downtown Auckland, the Viaduct, the Victoria Markets and Karangahape Rd.

Fourth, the disused Onehunga branch line needs to be reopened and the interchange shambles that operates at Newmarket changed.

Fifth, suburbs near rail stations need to promote attractive park-and-ride schemes, and finally, train schedules need revamping.

In my day as an undergraduate, the last train to Waitakere on weekdays left at 5.05pm - usually with only three of us on it.

There are now at least nine trains after this.

However, on most weekdays the last train leaves the city at 8.22pm, so if you want to catch a show or eat out in downtown Auckland, and use the train, you will have to do it on Friday or Saturday evening - or eat pretty quickly.

Small wonder the car continues to dominate the way people move around Auckland city.

And what of the inner suburbs? Well, Takapuna and Newmarket are planning disasters, a jumble of ill-fitting land uses, and totally dominated by traffic.

Other centres - such as Avondale, Balmoral and Mt Albert - remain largely undeveloped shopping strips dominated by the motor vehicle.

The area of Karangahape Rd between Queen St and Pitt St offers some respite. At the Pitt St end is the old George Court building lovingly restored. Opposite stands the Pitt Street Buildings.

Further up the road are the old Rendells buildings, opposite St Kevin's Arcade. The Arcade, with its open feeling and scattering of alternative shops, is just begging to be discovered.

Overall, I searched for evidence of the Auckland City Council's desire to "install a sense of community" and "to protect and enhance the unique character of downtown Auckland".

It may exist on paper but I couldn't find it on the ground.


* Professor Peter Curson is director of the health studies programme, division of environmental and life sciences, Macquarie University, NSW.