Project to redevelop 'heart' forging ahead

Saturday, 30 November 2024

Quasi, the giant hand-face sculpture by artist Ronnie van Hout that sat atop the now-closed City Gallery has gone, as has café Nikau. Neil Dawson’s Ferns orb has been removed and the forecourt’s tiles are being pulled up.

Come next month, it’s expected the entire civic square precinct will be closed to the public as work on strengthening the basement gets underway.

And in January, demolition of the City to Sea Bridge looks set to get under way. A report to the Environment and Infrastructure Committee, which meets next week, recommends it be replaced it with an at-grade crossing, and longer term, with a new bridge.

Work would begin demolition work in January 2025 to ensure the work was complete by late 2026, to fit with the town hall renovation.

It goes without saying it will be a less than happy new year for the many supporters of the bridge, but the report shows 57% of those submitting on options for its replacement want it gone.

But, if the fate of the City to Sea Bridge and old Capital E building looks to be a foregone conclusion, less clear is what’s happening with the site’s other earthquake-prone buildings ‒including the Michael Fowler Centre. Funding currently budgeted in years 5 to 8 of the LTP for that part of the redevelopment was cut at at a mammoth seven-hour council meeting earlier this week.

Work at the precinct began in 2019 with the $330m Town Hall upgrade. That was followed by the Te Ngākau Civic Precinct Framework which was to guide the redevelopment of civic square over the next 20 years.

In December 2022 strengthening and modernising of the Central Library Te Matapihi ki te Ao Nui began, and in April this year ‒after what the council described as a rigorous selection process ‒ it announced Precinct Properties was its preferred developer for a building on the site of the earthquake-prone Civic Administration (now demolished) and Municipal Office buildings.

Consultation on a widely-panned draft development plan, which sought input on plans to develop Jack Illott Green and the City Gallery and options to replace the City to Sea Bridge, closed on November 13.

At around the same time work began on lifting up some of the forecourt’s pātiki whāriki brickwork, designed especially for the precinct by artist Toi Te Rito Maihi.

Programme manager Farzad Zamani said removing the paving was needed to waterproof a transformer area as part of the library redevelopment. It would be reinstated once landscaping had been completed.

“We are in the process of getting in touch with Toi Te Rito Maihi whanau to ensure that the work will be decommissioned respectfully,” he said.

The library project is on track to be completed by February 2026 and the Town Hall in early 2027.

Talks with Precinct Properties are ongoing. Questions from The Post about why a deal was taking so long, and whether the original proposal - for a 10-story building in the corner site - was still on the cards went unanswered. “The best we can say at the moment is the negotiations are progressing and we should have an update early in the New Year,” a council spokesperson said.

The project has come in for considerable criticism. Emotional scenes at a recent public meeting saw one opponent asked to leave. Others, including one of the bridge’s architects, have threatened to chain themselves to it.

Wellington resident and civil engineer Alex Gray has been at the forefront of the campaign to save the City to Sea bridge. This week he laid a complaint with the ombudsman after the council refused an official information request regarding a breakdown of cost estimates (between $90m and $120m) for the planned work on the former Capital E building and the bridge.

Gray first asked for the estimates under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act on October 14, to ensure he was fully informed before making a submission.

Twenty working days later council asked for a two-week extension before advising last week they would not be releasing them as they would be publicly available shortly.

There were no public interests which outweighed the grounds for withholding the information, the council added.

The decision has infuriated one of the council’s own, Tony Randle, who said it appeared the officers involved had not followed Ombudsman advice regarding someone needing information to be able to participate in a policy or decision- making process on an informed basis.

“I am appalled at this clear breach of a public engagement process that [had] already been found wanting.”

He has asked that Gray be given the information, along with an apology.