A number of local buildings have received Auckland Architecture Awards at an event held at MOTAT Aviation Hall recently.
Rick Pearson, this year’s awards jury convenor, said the number of entries and high quality of shortlisted works made the judging process challenging.
Over the course of a busy week, Pearson and his fellow jurors - architects Jeff Wells, Julian Mitchell and Katherine Dean, as well as lay juror Fleur Palmer - visited 54 shortlisted projects. 107 projects were entered this year.
The jury conferred six awards in the multi-unit housing category, to Housing New Zealand homes in Mt Albert, multi-level townhouses in Hobsonville Point and apartments in Grey Lynn and Ponsonby.
“We were also impressed with the planning of Vinegar Lane in Ponsonby,” Pearson said. “It sets a good precedent for other areas looking to achieve urban density and diversity without forgoing building quality.
“In Grey Lynn, The Barrington, designed by Paul Brown Architects, incorporates small tenancies as well as live-work options. They jury said that 'the two street frontages create dynamically different conditions while maintaining the texture and grit of the neighbourhood'."
In nearby Ponsonby, at the Vinegar Lane precinct, the Aria Apartments by TOA Architects “raise the design bar high by meeting the challenge for entry-level housing within a high-density urban development,” the jury said.
Vinegar Lane also received an award for Planning and Urban Design. The project, master-planned by Isthmus for Progressive Enterprises, impressed the jury with its “back to the future concept of small, defined development lots, with a focus on architectural quality throughout.”
A building that is “all about cars” at 119 Great North Road won both a Commercial Architecture Award and an Interior Architecture Award. The luxury car showroom and office building, designed by Warren and Mahoney, has a “flawlessly organised integration of activities and services”, the jury said.
The Stables in Ponsonby, a small brick building that was originally a horse stable from the early days of the suburb, has received
a conversion by McKinney + Windeatt Architects that is “elegant, restrained and modest in scale.”