KEY POINTS:
The architect behind the masterplan for Britomart wants to know how a 21-storey hotel fits the vision for the heritage precinct.
Mario Madayag said he wondered what had happened to the intent of the masterplan, which was based on a low-rise development anchored on restoring heritage buildings.
Developer Cooper and Company wants to go outside the masterplan to build a luxury hotel on the Quay St site of the Seafarers Mission Building.
The hotel would be four times over strict height controls the company signed up to in 2004 to transform the 5.2ha Britomart site.
Cooper and Company principal Peter Cooper is under no illusions about the difficulties with a private plan change to breach the current rules but says he is is absolutely committed to the project and the benefits the hotel would bring to Britomart and the city.
Several urban design professionals have criticised the height and scale of the proposed hotel. They include Auckland City's urban design champion, Ludo Campbell-Reid, who called it "alien" in scale to the heritage needs of the precinct.
Mr Madayag said the hotel was not in line with the masterplan, which he drew up in conjunction with architects Jasmax as part of the winning design for the earlier $211 million Britomart transport project.
He said the masterplan clearly recognised the heritage buildings on Quay St and Customs St, with a series of new buildings down the middle.
A luxury hotel was envisaged on the east end fronting Britomart Place. Neither he nor Jasmax had been consulted by the council on changes to the masterplan.
Mr Madayag later got involved with developer Nigel McKenna in an unsuccessful bid to develop the heritage precinct.
"We made a promise and I thought everyone else made a promise to build that masterplan," he said.
Cooper and Company chief executive Matthew Cockram said yesterday that work done at Britomart was within the masterplan and regulatory rules, but he believed the hotel was a special case.
"Yes, we are doing something outside of what we contemplated, but we believe it is within the intent and we need to persuade the powers-that-be that that is right," he said.
The urban issues group of the Institute of Architects, which made a submission tothe plan change objecting to the hotel, has since met Cooper and Company to discuss the project.
Chairman Shannon Joe said the group had concerns over the scale and "massing" of the hotel, its relationship to the historical concept of Britomart and its acceptance by the council and public.
The group was preparing a report for Cooper and Company to consider when designing the hotel.
Mr Joe said the big question was whether the Britomart precinct should be reviewed.
"Is the vision outdated, because things change constantly every day?" he asked.
Mr Madayag said while the masterplan was nine years old and change was constant, he still believed it was best for Britomart.
"What seems to be lacking is political leadership to drive it through."
