Hey, where did our Town Square go?

Iain from Devonport

It’s great to see something proposed for the Takapuna carpark site. Apart from the one day of the week when the market attracts thousands to Takapuna, mostly from other parts, the carpark is a cold, souless heart.

But are Panuku’s three consultation options really the only available, selling 80% of the carpark to develop the remainder into a 1600m2 “town square”? You can do rough measurements based on Panuku’s “Current Consultation, Option 2".

It’s not easy to imagine how Panuku’s currently proposed “town square” will seem in 10 to 15 years time when Takapuna has grown as planned, more high-rises, a lot more people, better public transport. It’s approximately the same size as Federal Square in Auckland City.

At ground level, that square’s a welcome breathing space, a respite between some very tall buildings – just how Takapuna will develop perhaps?

Federal Square is not flat, it mostly serves to transit pedestrians - small groups of city workers chat and eat their lunch. If it was flat it could be the venue for a small public event, maybe a string quartet, not a 40-piece big band. I once saw a small film crew, shooting a TV commercial, completely take over the square, pedestrians threading between them. Federal Square, the same size as that offered by Panuku for Takapuna, is not big enough to be the beating heart of a vibrant Metropolitan Centre.

The flat paved area in front of the Aotea Centre is approximately 3000 m2.

It’s often “activated” with events. You can put a covered ice skating rink there and it still functions to transit pedestrians. It has an adjoining green-scaped area too, like Potters Park – a passive recreation area where refugees from apartments and offices can lie on grass or shade beneath trees.

Interestingly, the flat paved area in Aotea Square is similar in size to that suggested by Panuku in its July 2017 Framework Plan. You could roughly measure that as just over 3000 m2

Now, 12 months later, all Panuku says that can be created is a Town Square half the size, 1600 m2, not really a “square” more a transit strip.

There are positives in Panuku’s current consultation suggestions. The link from Lake Road through the new link to Hurstmere Road, Hurstmere Green and Takapuna Beach is great. And Panuku should be kept to their 2017 Framework Plan words, “carparking to be located below ground level”. But the current Town Square options are miserly. It’s not their final offer, it’s a negotiating position. The take-it-or-leave-it line is silly, Takapuna should expect more.

As a dear architect friend told me last year, "once public space is gone, you never get it back". For now, until there’s something better, I’m voting Option 3. tinyurl.com...

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