Hospital's second carpark approved after 11 years

Drawings of what the new Auckland City Hospital car parking building on Park Rd will look like . Picture / Supplied

A second carparking building has been approved at Auckland City Hospital, 11 years after the major reconstruction at the site got the nod, promising relief at last for patients and visitors.

But the $15 million development is not without controversy. The six-storey building will rise at a sensitive site overlooking the entrance to Auckland Domain, just where the Wallace Block stood for more than 80 years.

The National Government in 1999 approved what became a $430 million reconfiguration of Auckland District Health Board hospitals, including the construction of two carparking buildings at Grafton and one at Greenlane.

Only one of the parking buildings has been built - at Grafton - because the subsequent Labour-led Government wanted the board to focus on health facilities.

Yesterday, however, Health Minister Tony Ryall announced approval for the second Grafton parking building, to sit near the hospital's front door.

The ugly sight of the actual carpark will largely be shielded from view by a light aluminium cladding marked with a tree pattern. A row of shops will be attached on the Park Rd frontage, with commercial space to rent on top.