Editorial: No excuse for second-rate Queens Wharf

Queens Wharf is big, as those who took advantage of a recent public open day can attest. The platform acquired for a civic amenity and, more immediately, for Rugby World Cup "party central" the year after next, is wider and longer than it has seemed from behind Ports of Auckland's red gates. The level is split lengthwise and the ugly "sheds" - big barns close up - leave generous expanses for designers to work on.

It is a pity that the city council has declared a wish to keep those century-old eyesores. One or both survive in some form in all eight designs chosen to go forward in the next stage of the architectural contest. Some of the ideas applied to the vacant sections of the wharf are so appealing they cause us to wonder what might be envisaged if designers were given a completely clean canvas.

The appealing features of the eight finalists illustrated in the Herald on Monday include the opening of the end of the wharf with some sort of ramp to the water. Another interesting entry features a small boat harbour within the wharf. Several designs soften the wharf with artificial grass carpet and give it palm trees to remind arriving cruise ships they are in the South Pacific. One adapts a shed to give it the appearance of a Maori meeting house.

The designs are perhaps as good as could be expected from architects given a modest budget and little time. Entrants had barely five weeks to come up with designs before a short-list was chosen on September 30. This month has seen the development of those short-listed completed on Friday, and the evaluation of them started yesterday. The design finally chosen is expected to be announced in mid-November. Work needs to start soon if the wharf is to be the centre stage of the World Cup's off-field festivities.

But, in truth, it would not take much for the wharf to fulfil that role: just a sound stage, a big screen, the grass carpets, food and drink kiosks, plenty of temporary seating and a big canopy. The wharf's permanent design could proceed at a less frenetic pace. A misconception abounds that what is now being planned in time for the Rugby World Cup will give way to something more impressive after it. That is not so. One of the designs now on the table will be Auckland's central waterfront feature for long afterwards.

In time, perhaps 25 years hence, it may be joined by something more striking on the end of the western reclamation when the Tank Farm is finally removed from that site. But 25 years, the remaining life of the last Tank Farm lease, is a long wait.

In the meantime the waterfront between the Viaduct and the Tank Farm is also to be opened in time for the World Cup. Plans were published yesterday for Jellicoe St and the working wharf at its eastern end. They would open the quay where Waiheke vehicle ferries presently tie up, enabling the public to see and be near the maritime activities that would continue there.

The plan for the western waterfront and Tank Farm has been overburdened with prospective residential and commercial building, but the state of the property market must be tempering that vision. There is a limit, too, to the restaurants and bars the waterfront can support. As development moves west of the Viaduct it needs to be less restrictively planned, allowing public access and leaving the marine industry to decide the area's character. People enjoy watching working boats.

Rugby World Cup 2011 is a useful catalyst for councils to get on with these projects but not an excuse for second-rate results. If the final designs for Queens Wharf are impressive in parts but lack a truly breathtaking feature, we should wait for one that has it. Given time and an unrestricted brief, some designer somewhere will make Auckland sit up and say, "wow".