Readers nominate Auckland's ugliest buildings

Beaumont Quarter

Greenwich Park at the top of Symonds St, Auckland City Council's main Civic Building and the award-winning Beaumont Quarter opposite Victoria Park are some of Auckland's ugliest buildings, say Herald readers.

We asked people to nominate the ugliest building or worst example of urban design in response to an initiative by Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard to set up a taskforce of politicians, architects, developers and planners to halt bad architecture.

The aesthetics of the Civic Building and new central city apartment towers infuriated readers.

So did examples of urban renewal, notably Greenwich Park, which regularly upsets drivers on the Southern Motorway.

One reader, who did not want to be named, castigated the "incompetence" of the council's city planning department over the past 30 years.

"It needs new blood in there with fresh ideas from people who have travelled and seen how beautifully other cities around the world can do urban design," the reader said.

The Herald asked architect Aaron Sills, a member of the Institute of Architects' urban issues group, to provide a professional view of the buildings nominated by readers.

Mr Sills said people appreciated the same qualities in buildings as they valued in people, such as honesty and integrity.

They could also come to appreciate buildings that had some bad qualities but were "out there", like characters we met in life.

Mr Sills said the Beaumont Quarter, an award-winning residential development by Nigel McKenna, incorporated sophisticated thinking from home and overseas on an interesting scale and density.

"In some ways it is a victim of its own success because it attracts attention," Mr Sills said.

A spokesman for Mr McKenna, who also had his Lighter Quay development at the Viaduct Harbour nominated, believed there could have been a spirit of mischievousness to the nomination.

"Both developments have been carried out with a strong aesthetic and design element," the spokesman said.

Mr Sills shared the readers' view about Greenwich: "It is pretty awful. The only good thing about it is, if it is not leaking, it allows a lot of people to live in the city at a reasonable cost."

But he did not share one reader's view about the three Scene Apartment buildings between Quay St and Beach Rd at the rear of Britomart.

The buildings have also come under fire from design lobby group Urban Auckland for hogging waterfront views.

Mr Sills said the buildings were not ugly - he gave them five out of 10 - but said it was a "bit of a disaster" that they impeded a continuous walkway linking Britomart with the Quay Park indoor arena, now under construction.

The question of Auckland's ugliest structure drew an "Isn't it obvious?" response from reader Tai Kareroa, who nominated the Civic Building.

Mr Sills disagreed, saying it was a nice example of modernism with a good clarity among the surroundings of Aotea Square.

Council heritage manager George Farrant said the Civic was a "bit too skinny" to work well and suggested it could make a great backpackers' hostel.

Mr Farrant said the Government of the day envisaged nine such buildings in the Aotea precinct in the 1940s but only two were built, the 18-storey Civic and the eight-storey Bledisloe Building, a more successful piece of architecture.

READERS' ROLL CALL OF SHAME
(See links top right for pictures)

SCENE APARTMENTS, QUAY ST
Developer: Tony Gapes, Redwood Group.

Reader: "Horrible 1970s grey concrete block with orange balconies and a bright blue strip down the side."

Architect Aaron Sills: "It's not an ugly building. On a scale of one to 10 I would put it on a five."

BEAUMONT QUARTER, BEAUMONT ST
Developer: Nigel McKenna, Melview Developments.

Reader: "Some of the worst examples of urban design in Auckland are the Beaumont Quarter."

Aaron Sills: "In some ways it is a victim of its own success because it attracts attention."

GREENWICH PARK, SYMONDS ST
Developer: Roderick and Gregory Nielsen, Castlerock Properties.

Reader: "One of the worst examples of urban design in Auckland."

Aaron Sills: "It is pretty awful."

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