Queens Wharf Redesign Unveiled

AuthorByron 28 October 2010 Comments

PM John Key has unveiled the redesigned Queens Wharf Cloud, the temporary host of the RWC 2011 Party Central.

The evolving design (some older images below) has taken to hugging the wharf more than its earlier iterations, but still manages to lift its PVC kilt to the Auckland docks and city now and then. It's difficult to read into the development of the design, given the scarcity of images being published, but this more appropriate choice of perspective makes it look alright really. And given its (apparently) temporary life-cycle we probably shouldn't worry about this thing much anyway (if we ignore for a few months the short-sightedness of building such a building, for such an event, at such a site). Lobbyist's (notably the Auckland Architecture Association here and here among their many articles on the topic) have also been successful, in a compromised sort of way, in retaining Shed 10, successfully convincing the Council of their (or I suppose, just "its") heritage value.

An earlier iteration of the design, conspicuously Shed-free...

...and just a little bit funny.

Actually this is stupid. There are eleven other host cities of the RWC next year.

In Whangarei, the Northland Events Centre will also be upgraded to look like this.

This is where the actual Final will be held.
Good ol' Eden Park with some girth expansion.

In Nelson, Trafalgar Park will undergo an upgrade, set for a 20,000 seat capacity.

New Zealand's second largest stadium in Christchurch recently completed an upgrade as well, and will have a capacity of 45,000.

And in Dunedin, the Brook looks like it'll keep hold of its scheduled games, although Otago Stadium wants a slice of the action, unfortunately it looks a little bit like this:

Rather than this.

Some new and more appropriate images of the Dunedin Stadium I grabbed this morning.
The above was intentionally a bit cheeky.

An older rendering of the stadium on site, which I think is revealing. Grabbed this from http://www.pitchcare.com.au/magazine/article/727
Is this still the site?

And THIS is what it looked like a little while ago... grabbed this from
http://www.flickriver.com/places/New+Zealand/Otago/Dunedin/
by Ian@NZFlickr

There are a few beautifully shot albums on Flickr too, this one caught my eye
http://www.flickr.com/photos/downunderphotos/4720150633/in/photostream/

You can email me with better images, I'd love to see more, or comment with links to any you know of.
speak@productspec.net

Enjoy

5 Comments

While many (me included)still have very mixed feelings about the Dunedin stadium your photograph and comment as to the stage of construction is not at all accurate - the construction is omnipresent and spectacular.

Thanks Byron for posting that series up - although, missing out Wellington's Westpac Caketin Stadium is of course a serious ommission - but you are, of course, entirely right - there is such a hoopla over Auckland, and yet most of the action will be elsewhere around the country. Its lovely to see the offerings from Northland (hooray! a nice looking pencil stadium and cartoon players - let's hope its further along than that) and Nelson also looking rather large. Tim - I'm glad you like the Dunedin stadium and think it is omnipresent - it certainly will be omnipresent on the ratepayers bills down there, for, ooooh, about the next 50 years...

The 'cloud' ....how disappointing that Auckland could not get their act together to actually build something that responds to the water or its strategic context...visionary designs were not in short supply...(from the Queens wharf opening the red gates design competition) where some sophisticated designs arose from no funding and constrained time limits. I guess at least the building will serve its purpose of housing events for the RWC11... but it may be a little crowded with all that political hot air and bureaucracy.

What about the NZ Trade Pavilion which is internationality recognized we have already paid for currently in China and is due to come down and brought back to NZ? With all this talk about recycling and being sustainable

Tim, my apologies, my light hearted comment may seem a bit harsh, when really I'd love to get hold of a more recent image, and will be happy to post it up... For more discussion on it, I highly recommend this blog: http://dunedinstadium.wordpress.com/ Guy, I was considering posting all of the venues, including the mighty Rotorua International Stadium among others, however decided to limit my list to those that had undergone recent upgrades, as far as I know the Caketin remains as solid as ever..