Amazing New Entrance To Britomart

 

It’s nice to be able to report positive observations about Auckland’s downtown mangled landscape. The rejuvenation of Britomart’s historic area is starting to look amazing.
It’s not so long ago, when you arrived at Britomart, there wasn’t much in the way of retail or hospitality outlets, apart from the rather mediocre coffee place on the street level floor of Britomart.
Along with the emergence of nearby impressive coffee shops, new bars and restaurants around the Quay & Customs St areas, the Britomart East complex, across the road from the station, housing the new Ernst & Young and Westpac HQ has also opened.
The public thoroughfare provides new escalator and lift access to Britomart’s underground train platform.
But the stunning highlight are the Natural Habitats 60 custom made panel living walls sitting between two to five stories above ground level in the atrium of that thoroughfare.

The eco art works are a focal point of the building, which has a New Zealand Green Building Council five-star rating.

These 120mm deep walls, with a combination of native and exotic epiphytes, ferns, climbers and groundcovers, chosen for their low light and maintenance requirements, live on harvested rainwater.

I’m choosing this entrance now as it’s such a pleasant journey to the station platform.

The Britomart area is already developing a buzz and character of its own. Congratulations to the architects and designers working in the precinct and doing such an impressive job.

Approaching Britomart from here, feels like living in a real city.

Tags:

 
 
 

10 Comments

 
  1. Geoff says:

    Now they just need to turn the car parks above the station into a green space, and the place will finally look acceptable.

  2. Matt says:

    I work in the complex, and it’s got a great vibe. Bring on the extra retail, I say.
    I also love the three-minute trip from my 4th-floor desk to the train platforms.

  3. shaun says:

    I see they’re doing work on the (former) carpark above the station, anyone know what’s happening to it? The area has come a long way, lots of trendy bars and retail opening up in the area, oh and a gym.

  4. Luke says:

    that car park is very out of place in an otherwise excellent development. I’ve heard there is another building planned in the medium term for the site. Is that correct

  5. joust says:

    i’ve walked through there a few times since it opened. Marvellous use of the location.

  6. Patrick R says:

    yeah the carpark is a building site…. I like the suggestion f trading it off for the extra floors Cooper wants to put on the new building on Quay St. I’m a little less obsessed with building height [hardly out of place in a city] and we could get access to the carpark site. But not if it remains a carpark of course….

  7. Sam says:

    @ Patrick R - I also think the building height restrictions should be relaxed a bit… especially as its the main hub of our Public transport network.

    Not sure about this other building going in the middle of the development though- Although I do like the new Westpac/ Ernst & Young building, I think a second could make a bit much of a tunnel to be quite as nice a space.

    Also, I can see it having other notable negative effects such as:

    -removing the potential for nice public space there (obviously),
    -making the ramainder of Tyler and Galway Streets dark lanes- thereby discouraging the cafes and bars which have developed along there recently. I’m sure these establishments currently benefit from the vast open space on their doorsteps.
    - the interior of the station will receive considerably less natural light
    -large events will no longer be able to be held there - even the farmers market.

  8. Rui says:

    Yes, excellent development.

    I think the carpark will be temporarily transformed for the RWC, probably some fan zone, but I’ve seen long term plans and they are going to build another highrise. A shame because there is some nice symmetry with Britomart and the Westpac/EY bulding.

  9. max says:

    Yeah, losing most of that open space would be a shame, but I guess we are always talking about intensification, so it has to go somewhere, and where better than above a rail station…

    Hope the green walls do well - I hear they can be tricky to keep surviving (but maybe not so much an issue with an indoors green wall).

  10. Andy says:

    There is more building planned for part of the car park over the station. It would be a great idea to trade this for additional height in return for some low rise bars, cafes etc in the middle of a public plaza - with green space!

 

Leave a Comment

 




XHTML: You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>