Your apartment special issue last month set us thinking about how the featured developments faired vs the published findings of the Community-led Vision Plan for Great North Road.
This was released in March 2021 by the Grey Lynn Residents Assn. after extensive consultation with local residents, community groups, business owners, local politicians, AT, Auckland Council planners, residential architects and attempted dialogue with developers.
The ridge along Great North Road between Ponsonby Road and the Grey Lynn village is ripe for residential intensification and particularly on the Northern side where building height has less amenity effect; the vision plan is broadly supportive. In consultation, it became clear that a number of good building design provisos were necessary to strengthen the amenity of residents and pedestrians and attract suitable business activity that is always the lifeblood of a thriving community.
These are: Provision for ground-floor business activity. It is great to see the featured proposed developments in your April edition being the Covington Group’s ‘The Grey’ and Ockham Residential’s ‘The Feynman’, both being high quality designs incorporating ground-floor business opportunity. In contrast a good example of poor interface design widely panned at the time by urban designers is Ockham Residential’s Turing Building on the corner of Ariki Street and Great North Road which despite the pretty use of concrete form completely turns away from its prime location along the boulevard.
Weather protections, otherwise known in layman terms as ‘awnings’ - neither of the proposed developments make meaningful provision for pedestrian weather protection. ‘The Feynman’ takes up the whole block where the Caltex Service station once resided, has ground floor business space yet only a token awning at the western end entrance. Why then does ‘The Greenhouse’, Ockham’s ground-breaking development currently being constructed on the corner of Williamson Avenue and Pollen Street, opposite the Ponsonby Countdown, have full-on awnings along the complete streetscape?
Conversely, the planned ‘The Grey’, the already completed ‘The Crest’, The Dylan’, ‘The North’ and ‘217 North’, co-incidentally all designed by Paul Brown and Associates but developed by multiple entities, have similarly token provision, yet a PB&A designed block at 428 Dominion Road is fully equipped to protect pedestrians against inclement weather.
So, who to blame? Auckland Council planners have no guiding statue that mandates. Maybe consultation on the proposed RMA changes gives an opportunity for planners to place granular conditions on high rise developments? Architects and designers can suggest but ultimately are at the mercy of developer’s whim and budgets.
That leaves the developers, who appear, given the perceived high quality of all the projects discussed, sinking funds into attracting suitable residential purchasers and ground-floor tenants. They pay little regard to the negative effect a lack of weather protection has on pedestrian access, and the type of business they will ultimately attract, plus their building’s relationship with the streetscape and the sense of place that good design will bring to the Great North Road Community as it develops over time.
David Batten, Brandon Wilcox, Grey Lynn Residents Assn
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