UCOL student designs new ticket booth for Whanganui's Cooks Gardens

Efion Paul is the UCOL student behind the preferred design of a new ticket booth for Whanganui's Cooks Gardens. Photo / Supplied

A group of UCOL architectural students have teamed up with the Whanganui District Council to help create a new ticketing book for Cooks Gardens.

UCOL senior lecturer of architectural technology and construction Marshell Putu said the council's venues and events team came to UCOL with a community engagement proposal and was pleased to provide the opportunity to his students.

"We had six students who returned designs, which were then presented to the venues and events team, who chose a preferred design but liked aspects of two others," Putu said.

Those three students are now collaborating to finalise the plans for the booth, which will then be built and installed by UCOL Whanganui's Level 3 carpentry students.

Efion Paul, the student behind the preferred design, said the project had been a great opportunity to hone his skills.

"I have come from a graphic design background, so getting the opportunity to have the design built into a full structure for the first time is incredibly exciting."

He said the concept design was fun to play with over the Easter break, and the next steps of detailing and trying to keep within budgets had been a challenge and a great insight into industry expectations.

The council's venue and events manager, Dana Burnett, said the collaboration between the council and UCOL on the creation of the booth had been positive.

"UCOL has been a fantastic project partner. We've really enjoyed working with David Freebairn [academic portfolio manager for construction] and Marshell Putu to develop a project brief and we were impressed with all of the students' draft concepts."

She said choosing the preferred design was a difficult decision, but the council believed it would blend into the design of Cooks Gardens while considering the historic importance of the venue.

Paul said he loved the design and character of Cooks Gardens.

"I hope that the ticket booth will complement the entrance and surrounding areas for the Whanganui community," he said.

The ticket booth will be placed at the St Hill St entrance to the stadium, replacing one that was removed two sports seasons ago because of vandalism.

To stop this from happening again, the new booth will be a semi-fixed structure and more robust.