Herald readers have their say on Viaduct plans

* Good start. I'm sick of hearing Sydneysiders talking about having the most beautiful harbour in the world - as if it's a scientific fact.

Above all, can NZ finally have one architectural icon. Build something, anything.

It doesn't matter if half the population hate it or give it cruel nicknames - as long as the world knows it means Auckland and everybody who goes there has to be photographed in front of it. No, Sky Tower doesn't qualify.

Hamish Sutherland.

* I would love to see provision made for an uninterrupted walk around the foreshore, from underneath the harbour bridge past Westhaven Marina and through to the Viaduct. A situation similar to that of the Botanical Gardens in Sydney, where the harbour foreshore walk is one of the most beautiful I know of anywhere, would be wonderful.

Hamilton Lee.

Milford.

* The only possible fly in the ointment is the suggestion of a tertiary campus on the Tank Farm peninsula. Definitely the wrong place for such an institution. If the Tank Farm is to be reclaimed for Aucklanders, it should be set aside for something that all can enjoy. A world-class entertainment and conference centre, something along the lines of Southbank in Melbourne.

Mark Farrell.

Devonport.

* A university campus on the foreshore? Absolute madness. I would be totally against it. What a waste of prime real estate. In the long term, an opera house would be more like it - as long as it looked really good and didn't block all the views of the water from the park.

Michael Russell.

Northcote Pt.

* The grandiose plans for a "liveable CBD" are unrealistic because they seek to eliminate the storage tanks and terminals of Wynyard Wharf area. This would suppress commerce and trade vital to the Port of Auckland.

Whether architects and young urban professionals like it or not, the port is the reason Auckland is here.

Any working port requires fuel for the ships which call, places to unload liquid food oils and adjacent storage for industrial liquid materials, and must be able to store and despatch the tallows and fats from our primary industries.

Let us hope that some city planners are realistic enough to look at the whole picture and not destroy the lifeblood of the port in their search for a sanitised urban theme park.

Kevin O'Sullivan.

Mt Wellington.

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