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Auckland City's urban design champion, Ludo Campbell-Reid, has serious concerns about "alien" plans for a 21-storey hotel towering over the historic Britomart precinct.
In his first public criticism since arriving in Auckland from London two years ago, Mr Campbell-Reid said the hotel was out of sync with the heritage and human-scale vision for Britomart.
"I have concerns around height. I have concerns around scale. I have issues around sun, daylight and shadowing over adjacent properties and the public realm," he said.
Mr Campbell-Reid is one of several urban design experts to knock the proposal by Britomart development company Cooper and Company for a luxury hotel on the site of the rundown Seafarers Building on Quay St.
Company principal Peter Cooper aimed to create a "low-rise heritage-based precinct" when he took on the Britomart project in 2004. Now his company wants to go four times over strict height controls to build a 175-room hotel.
Company chief executive Matthew Cockram said a five-star hotel, which would make a significant addition to Britomart and Auckland, could not be built within the current height limit of 24m for the Seafarers site.
The proposed hotel would be about the same height as the 19-level HSBC building further down Quay St. The hotel could end up being 79m high on Quay St and 105m on Tyler St.
Mr Campbell-Reid, appointed by the previous council to halt shonky development and bad architecture passing for urban renewal, said Cooper and Company's work at Britomart had breathed new life and sophistication into a rundown part of the city.
He supported a five-star hotel but believed the company was trying to insert something "alien" in scale, instead of healing the heritage needs.
Architect Graeme Scott, a former chairman of the Institute of Architects urban issues group, said it was agreed Britomart would be a low-rise, historic precinct.
"To have it attacked at random by a developer is a hopeless way to run a city. I would be gobsmacked if the council let it proceed," Mr Scott said.
Unitec associate professor of urban design Dushko Bogunovich said the hotel was grossly out of character and scale for Britomart and allowing it would be "an outrageous change of strategic direction".
The council's urban design panel said the hotel was in "conflict with the character of the adjacent buildings and the larger philosophy that informs that Britomart precinct plan".
The panel was sympathetic towards using the site for a hotel and suggested a hotel of up to 50m high.
Auckland University associate professor of architecture and urban design Clinton Bird, hired by Cooper and Company to undertake an urban design review, said the hotel was entirely appropriate for the Britomart masterplan philosophy.
Mr Bird, who 20 months ago said it was "outrageous" to blight the waterfront with a nine- to 12-storey stadium, said it was eminently sensible to build a 21-storey waterfront hotel not far from the proposed stadium site.
Auckland City Mayor John Banks said he liked the idea of attracting a five-star hotel operator to Auckland but acknowledged there would be urban design hoops for Cooper and Company.
City development general manager John Duthie, who has been closely involved with Britomart and the masterplan, refused to express a view before officers had completed a report on a plan change by Cooper and Company to amend the rules to build the hotel.
