KEY POINTS:
The upgrade plans for Aotea Square seem to have gone through more versions than Microsoft's Windows operating system.
Back at the turn of the century when a design competition was announced and money grew on trees, it was promoted as a project in its own right. This week, with belt-tightening the slogan of the day, the latest rationale pretends it's only happening as the fortuitous byproduct of the need to repair the leaky carpark building below.
You can almost hear the collective sighs of relief from the bureaucrats that they have found a way of preserving this long-delayed exercise in extravagance. One that even in its present economy version, is going to cost $25 million.
That's unless they can persuade the politicians to spend more on what their report calls "additional quality improvements".
Myself, I'd be quite happy if they carefully piled the existing paving in a corner somewhere, and reinstated it at minimum expense once the underground repairs were completed. I'm quite relaxed about the lived-in look of the square.
The pitted slabs are part of its charm, as is the maturing greenery, the skateboarders launching off and on to Terry's Stringer's Mountain Fountain, and the weathered familiarity of Selwyn Muru's much-photographed carved entryway.
That's why I bridle when I read the officials claiming "the existing landscape of the square is widely regarded as aesthetically degraded and less than optimal in function and fitness".
Widely regarded as such by whom?
To me, the $25 million would be better spent on, for example, the restoration of the St James Theatre.
The optimum is an academic concept straight out of the planner's textbook requiring a square that "fulfils the critical role of a public open space that is available for democratic processes such as protest, celebration and festival".
Over the years it has gained a Maori flavouring, now being described as the "marae atea." But the proposed function is the same.
A place, "large enough to accommodate 20,000 people standing at four per square metre which is an average density for rock concerts" and adjacent lawn terraces holding a further 10,000 people.
It all sounds a bit ye olde men-in-toga romanticism to me. Real men demonstrate in trucks these days, they don't argue the toss at public meetings.
The mention of rock concerts in the same breath as Aotea Square suggests how little institutional memory remains at city hall. Or how ancient I am.
Does no one recall the power failure at the "Thank God it's Over" summer celebration concert in this very square in 1984 that led to members of the 10,000 audience running amok in Queen St causing damage in excess of $1 million?
We already have great outdoor venues for demos or rallies such as the Domain or Victoria Park which are not going to bring the inner city to a halt.
I've long been a fan of Waitakere Mayor Bob Harvey's proposal, first floated in 1993, to create a lake in front of the Aotea Centre. He argued the building would look more attractive in such a setting.
Earlier advocates of the "democratic assembly place" were aghast. So were engineers who said the weight of the water would collapse the carpark.
But if the carpark is to be strengthened, why not add a bit of extra steel and concrete, and give us a peaceful reflecting pond.
What is good news is that the square's assorted artworks seem safe. Three years back, the designers wanted to blitz the square and start afresh. Sculptor Terry Stringer got a note saying his Mountain Fountain, a 1979 water sculpture competition winner, was being "decommissioned" - shorthand for demolished.
This time round, he and other artists have been consulted and, from the checking I have done, are happy their works will return, more or less, to where they are.
