Architectural drawing of proposed 39 floor tower to be built above the st james
Developers have won a six-year fight to build a 39-storey apartment tower next to the historic St James Theatre on Auckland's Queen St. Antipodean Apartments is among several high-rise buildings planned for inner city Auckland, including the 232m Elliott Tower and 144m Saffron Apartments, both on Albert St. The project was approved by independent commissioners for Auckland City Council this month after the High Court quashed the first consent granted in 2003.
Developer Paul Doole said he couldn't comment on a start date for construction, adding he was reassessing his original plans in light of the recession. "We've got an open mind on it and that's what we'll be looking at in the next four or five weeks."
The 2004 High Court ruling followed a judicial review brought by architectural watchdog group Urban Auckland which argued the council hadn't looked closely enough at the tower's design. Council central area planning manager John Duguid said the second application had been through a "rigorous design review".
The new design, which sees the main material used in the structure changed from concrete to glass, has been backed by the council's urban design panel. Consent was granted without public input because it was considered to have less than minor effects on the environment, Duguid said.
Urban Auckland spokesman Don McRae didn't know a new application had been approved and hadn't seen the new plans. The development means the 1928 St James, damaged by fire in 2007, won't be reopened. Instead, it will be sealed watertight and then mothballed for the foreseeable future. Limited preservation work will include some earthquake-proofing and restoration of the original Queen St tower that has remained hidden behind a facade since 1953.
The apartment block will be built alongside the heritage-protected theatre, requiring demolition of the disused Odeon, Westend and Regent cinemas. About two-thirds of the 332 apartments will be one-bedroom units sized between 41 and 49sq m with a balcony. Under district plan rules, one-bedroom apartments in the city must be at least 45sq m, but the balcony can be included in the floor space.
The Historic Places Trust has approved the project, although heritage advisor Robin Byron said they would prefer to see the theatre restored. "We've worked very hard to try to include all sorts of provision for ensuring that the building is protected from the weather, from vandalism and from deterioration so at some time in the future it can be used again."
NZ HERALD: Tuesday Aug 26, 2008. By Bernard Orsman
A review of theatre venues in Auckland City calls for an immediate start on the long-planned $21 million Q Theatre behind the Auckland Town Hall. The review, by Horwath International, says the current performing arts venues in the city are failing to meet the needs of the professional theatre and dance sectors. As well as making a start on the 350-to-460-seat flexible Q Theatre, the report recommends the council immediately start planning a 500-to-600-seat drama theatre within the same Aotea Theatre precinct. Further down the track there should be a 100-to-200-seat studio theatre as part of the drama theatre, the review said.
The recommendations, with the backing of council officers, will be considered by councillors at tomorrow's arts, culture and recreation committee meeting. Q Theatre general manager Susanne Ritzenhoff said the recommendations confirmed the need to advance the project, while also recognising the flexible theatre was never the only solution.
The project had resource consent and could be built in two years, she said. Auckland Theatre Company general manager Lester McGrath said the concept of a flagship multi-venue theatre, envisaged only a few months ago with a proposal at Mid City in Queen St, seemed to have disappeared. "I'm left wondering why [a multi-venue theatre] has dropped off the radar.” The review said a mix of theatres would result in a more vibrant and sustainable performing arts sector. Mr McGrath said there was absolutely no argument with the finding that a number of theatre spaces were required, but he was concerned about the political will and money to build a 500-to-600-seat drama theatre.
Planning a drama theatre is estimated to cost $600,000 over two years. That is unbudgeted spending that must compete with other demands, such as an extra $17 million to $24 million for the Rugby World Cup, at a time when the council is slashing spending to hold rates to inflation.
The review said a proposal involving the St James Theatre was not favoured because it could not meet the priority theatre needs and there was significant uncertainty about the costs and timeframes because the building was not owned by the council. The review also noted uncertainty around the availability of the Maidment and SkyCity theatres and recommended the council should negotiate with their owners to secure greater certainty about availability until new venues were built. Councillors will consider the full capital and running costs of the Q Theatre tomorrow.
A confidential paper is understood to include details of a proposed $6 million grant from the Lotteries Commission, with a condition that the council increases running costs from $300,000 a year to $400,000.The paper also includes details of lost income to the council from the removal of carparking for the theatre.Arts, community and recreation policy manager Ruth Stokes said she hoped all the costings would be made public. The council has pledged $9.2 million to the $21 million Q Theatre project, which has been planned for 10 years to fill the gap for a medium-sized theatre since the demise of the Watershed Theatre in 1996.
Brian Rudman: Wanted: Fund pledges for multi-theatre arts complex
NZ HERALD: Monday Jul 14, 2008. By Brian Rudman
Back in early May, I was rather swept up in the excitement over a plan to transform the long-deserted Mid City cinema complex into a multi-theatre arts centre. It was the dream of the Auckland Theatre Company, who were looking for a new home after the University of Auckland gave their long-time actor tenants notice that their home in the Maidment Theatre was not necessarily secure. The hope was that for less than $35 million the old Queen St cinemas could be remodelled to solve both ATC's and the city's theatre-venue crisis. But last week, ATC and Auckland City Council, who had investigated the proposal together under the leadership of independent project director Terry Mansfield, conceded the dream was not achievable on the site.
The vendor, Bridgecorp receiver PricewaterhouseCoopers, had refused the ATC and city officials adequate time to undertake full due diligence on the site, but the project team had time enough to decide that structural restrictions and the complicated system of ownership of the associated retail spaces made it a daunting prospect - particularly as price guesstimates soared to more than $50 million. In a letter to supporters, ATC chairman Kit Toogood, QC, said, "Naturally we are very disappointed that the exciting goal of creating a world-class theatre centre in the heart of the city has been unattainable at this site."
However, "a number of positive outcomes have resulted from the project". The first one, as I've noted before, is that the glimpse of a possible theatre Nirvana for Auckland focused the diffuse theatre community on a common goal for the first time I can recall. The short window of opportunity that a receiver's fire sale allowed also concentrated minds as never before. The actors quickly agreed on what was needed. Mr Toogood says the clear consensus is that Auckland needs a 550-seat drama theatre, a 350-seat flexi-form space and a 100-200 seat studio theatre. "It is widely recognised that the ideal scenario would be to locate these venues together in one complex or in a closely-associated cluster.
"With the Mid City site off the agenda, attention has shifted to alternative greenfield sites, perhaps south of the Town Hall or on the carpark between Aotea Centre and the Bledisloe Building. Just how these sites stack up will be addressed in the study of CBD venue needs being prepared by Stephen Hamilton of Horwath International and due to be presented this month. This study was commissioned by the city in March to put into context the plight of the rapidly decaying historic St James Theatre and also the on-going rumblings surrounding the proposed Q Theatre project.
Noting that the council may, within the next five years, be invited to step in to save the St James, the brief was to look at "potential functional uses and market demand" for a refurbished St James, for professional performing venues in general, and to deliver a plan for future provision of, and investment in, performing arts venues. Complicating this latter-day move for a "grand plan" to deal with theatre shortages is the 10-year battle by the backers of the 350-450 seater Q Theatre to get their south-of-the-Town Hall project under way.
Over the years the estimated costs of Q have ballooned to, at last count, $21 million, of which they have promises for $14.3 million - much of that from Auckland City and the ASB Trusts. By the time the Horwath report is delivered, Q backers should know how much, if any, Lotteries funding they have secured.
Auckland City has indicated there is no more money coming from that source. Even if Q flukes the full $6 million shortfall, the question is, should public money be going into this one-off project if the venue study comes up with a proposal for a larger, more cost effective, multi-theatre complex? If I were one of the Q campaigners, I'd be wanting some pretty clear commitments from city councillors before abandoning my dream in favour of someone else's. One can only hope they get it, because the multi-theatre solution is so much better.
NZ HERALD: Monday Mar 10, 2008. By Brian Rudman
Auckland City's interest in buying the imperilled St James Theatre emerges in a tender document recently sent out to a select group of arts consultants. The city is commissioning a comprehensive study of future CBD venue needs, and has given seven potential consultants until next Monday to bid for the task.
The council wants the survey to specifically look at "potential functional uses and market demand for refurbishing the St James", noting the redevelopment plans for "the Regent/Westend/Odeon/St James Theatre block and the prospect that council may within the next five years be invited to purchase the St James Theatre".
The report will not just look into the need and market demand for professional performing arts venues in Auckland City, but will also have to deliver a strategic action plan to guide and prioritise the future provision and investment in performing arts venues.
The study arises from last month's hearings into the future of the Q Theatre project - the proposed 350-460 seat flexible stage space behind the Town Hall which has failed to emerge from the drawing boards despite 10 years of good intentions. In recent years its estimated cost has blown out from $9.3 million to $21 million.
A little flexi-experimental theatre was identified in a 1997 Deloitte's study into Auckland venue needs as the city's most pressing new theatre requirement. But since then, the overall scene has changed for the worse. The future of the CBD's two main drama theatres - the Maidment and SkyCity - have question marks hanging over them.
At the Q Theatre hearing, the big professional performing arts groups pressed the urgent need for a new review of theatre needs. Without actually bagging the Q Theatre project, they argued that along with a flexi-theatre, the city also needed a 550-seat drama theatre and a 1200-seat multi-purpose venue for theatre and opera.
Many in the performing arts scene agreed with the Auckland Theatre Company's submission questioning the making of a "substantial" contribution to a project "which is only a partial solution to the city's venue requirements".
As always in the cash-strapped arts sector, it's the old debate of taking the bird in the hand versus dreaming of catching the flock in the bush.
With commendable haste, the city has set about conducting the requested review. The briefing document, from Liz Civil, manager of arts policy, also wants the successful consultant to examine "the desirability of council continuing to support the Q Theatre project ... and whether this proposal still reflects the most pressing need".
Rather ominously the report calls for the proposed new venues that could be achieved in the next 10 to 15 years to be listed "in an order of priority", with a "clear direction for council as to which venue should be given first priority given that it is likely that only one venue will be funded at this time".
One of the organisations campaigning for just such a review has been the Aotea Centre's board of management, which noted "the very real shortage of venues in the Auckland CBD" in its submission to the Q Theatre hearings. The Edge's chief executive, Greg Innes, is pleased arts organisations like his have been heard. However he hopes for an improvement in the proposed management structure of the review process, concerned that channelling the whole process through a consultant could end up with yet another report left to gather dust on a shelf. With lack of funding a continuing crisis, he says it is important that representatives of the various arts groups be involved in the report preparation proceedings, especially in the priority-setting stages. He suggests that discussions should be chaired by a trusted high profile arts leader.
Rather optimistically, he talks of such inclusiveness leading to consensus, but it seems obvious that such a process is more likely to achieve a better level of appreciation of each other's needs, and a higher level of buy in, than leaving the decision-making to the tender mercies of one consultant.
Of course in this year of the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance, it seems short-sighted that the document makes no reference to the possibility that hopefully sooner rather than later in the 10 to 15 year timescale identified, funding for major theatre venues and for performing arts groups will become a regional responsibility, not just the lot of Auckland City ratepayers. Then again, that really is dreaming of birds in the bush.
GLASS TOWER: The 39-level Antipodean Apartments, comprising 334 apartments, retail and carparking on the site of the historic St James theatre.
Plans to build a glass apartment block above Auckland's St James Theatre have been revived, four years after being quashed by the High Court.
The proposal would leave the protected St James Theatre intact and restore its Queen St tower, enclosed in cladding since 1953. Part of the 1928 building, including three cinemas added more recently, would be demolished. Significant heritage items from this section would be salvaged and kept for any future restoration of the St James. But developer Paul Doole says there are no plans to reopen the theatre at this stage. He is speaking to the council about options for the venue, which has the highest possible heritage protection under the district plan. "They’re doing an assessment, as are we as part of our consent regarding the development."
Basic fire protection and electrical upgrades needed to reopen the stalls would cost at least $10 million, according to a council memo. And new building code standards mean any work would trigger the need for earthquake-proofing, which could cost up to $50 million. Mr Doole says he hasn’t approached the council, or any other party, about buying the theatre. Mayor John Banks says he would like to see the St James restored, but the council would not get involved unless the project had significant contributions from the private sector and central government. "Given that we’re struggling with funding and cost escalations around Q Theatre, I’m reluctant to bite off more than I can chew."
The original Antipodean Apartments proposal was approved by the council in 2003 without being publicly notified. That decision was overturned by the High Court in 2004 after a judicial review requested by Urban Auckland. Committee members for the trust, which monitors the quality of design in Auckland, were unavailable for comment. St James Theatre leaseholder Peter McArthur wouldn’t comment on the plans, saying he was involved with court action with owners Norfolk Trustee Company. A council spokesman says the application is still being processed and no decision has been made on whether it will be publicly notified.
NZ HERALD: Thursday May 31, 2007. By Scott Kara
The St James Theatre has been closed indefinitely by the Auckland City Council after dodgy wiring in the historic venue caused a fire. Theatre operator Peter McArthur, who has a long-term lease on the building, says the place has been shut down and he's not sure when it is going to reopen. The fire on May 12 happened because of an electrical fault in a switchboard in a backstage dressing room at the Westend Theatre, a small theatre within the complex. "The council has issued a warrant to close the building for public access until the landlord can convince them the complex is safe to be used," says McArthur.
Landlord Paul Doole, an apartment developer, told McArthur the theatre was going to be open on Monday but it wasn't. Doole told TimeOut he couldn't say when the venue was going to reopen. "Council are reviewing it; we've got consultants producing reports and they're doing an audit of the theatre. Being an older building, and being a heritage building, the council are sensitive to safety.
The St James is a category one historic building, meaning it is protected and cannot be bulldozed. Considering the number of reports required to assess what needs to be done to get the building up to standard, it could be a long wait before punters return. It could also be costly.
A council spokesperson says even though the fire was in the Westend Theatre the electrics of the entire complex need investigating. Since the fire the theatre has lost TV2's Pop's Ultimate Star and this week's Solidsonic punk rock festival. Evermore have changed their show to the Bruce Mason Centre in Takapuna. Future shows, such as Xzibit in June, Bloc Party in August, and the Taste of Chaos Tour in October, are up in the air. "The artists' agents are saying if you can't confirm a venue we don't even want to put it on our world trip, which is understandable. So, unless we can get some answers in a hurry then those shows are in jeopardy," says McArthur, who is already more than $100,000 out of pocket because of the lost shows.
Blaze ravages theatre
Sunday May 13, 2007. By Miles Erwin
One of Auckland's iconic theatres has been ravaged by a fire that emergency services suspect was arson.
The West Wing of the St James Theatre in Queen Street was badly damaged in the blaze which broke out at about 3am yesterday. The fire was so hot it melted the visors on firefighters' helmets. No one was in the building at the time with most of the staff heading off to a nearby bar at about 2.30am.
Firefighters said the blaze is being treated as suspicious. Theatre manager John Griffiths said there had been problems at the neighbouring hostel and with vagrants in the area - 13 were rounded up by police last week.
"It was deliberately done, I think. The hostel next door has been plagued by vagabonds. There are street people who live in the entrance."
Griffiths said it was lucky it was an old concrete building which helped to prevent the fire spreading. "It was … built like a fortress," he said. However, the quick efforts of firefighters stopped the building from being gutted - if they had arrived five minutes later the fire would have engulfed the theatre.
"We could have lost the whole building - I know it was really hot," senior station officer Sulu Devoe said. Gareth Romero, a security worker for St James, ran to the theatre when he heard it was on fire and arrived to see black smoke billowing from the building. "We could see the smoke from far away - it was pretty thick. We were all wondering how it started. It's either from the electrics, because it's quite an old building, or it could be arson. But for a building so secure how did they get in in the first place?"
Griffiths said the fire isn't likely to slow the theatre down too much, and it will be ready for the next gig in about a month's time. The main theatre will not be affected.
"It will slow up for maybe a few weeks while they do repairs. It should be up and running by then. It's just a matter of getting a team of builders going in there."
NZ HERALD: Monday May 16, 2005. By Bernard Orsman
Many critics, including Mayor Dick Hubbard, say a council-led push for high-density development has led to scores of ugly apartment towers which will become ghetto areas. The number of apartments in central Auckland has exploded, from 1500 in the early 1990s to 10,000 and another 4000 under construction. The council is projecting a central-city population of 26,470 by 2013.
City planning group manager John Duthie, who has just been promoted to the council's top planning job, defended his staff's decision to rubber-stamp so many poorly designed apartment towers without public scrutiny. At the time they complied with bulk, height and other controls that paid little attention to design matters, he said.
In the past two years the council had established an urban design panel to vet new central-city projects and put the brakes on tiny apartments by imposing a minimum 30sq m size. The new council was committing nearly $1 million to beef up its urban design expertise and Mr Hubbard had set up an urban design taskforce to halt shonky development and bad architecture.
Nigel Cook, of the architectural lobby group Urban Auckland, was critical of the council's planning department, saying it had a culture of servicing the needs of the developers without including the public. The apartments along Nelson St, Hobson St and Union St on the city fringe were "simply barbaric".
"How you can justify putting up one block of flats next to another block of flats next to another block of flats so that nobody except the one downhill can see is beyond me," Mr Cook said.
Urban Auckland took the council to the High Court last year and won a case to overturn a non-notified resource consent for a 36-storey apartment block on the site of the historic St James Theatre in Queen St. In a landmark ruling, Justice Patrick Keane said the council could not ignore the design for one of the largest buildings in Auckland. The urban design panel has looked at revised plans for the tower and said it is too big for the area.
Mr Hubbard said the taskforce was addressing the issue of greater public involvement in urban design issues and how that might fit into an idea of rewarding developers who exceeded minimum design and quality standards.
NZ HERALD: Friday May 06, 2005. By Bernard Orsman
The controversial 36-storey apartment building planned for the site of the historic St James Theatre in Queen St is too big for the area, according to the Auckland City Council urban design panel. The panel has asked developer Norfolk Trustee to make changes to the building, which has become a design battleground between the developer, politicians and architectural professionals.
Last December, the High Court overturned a resource consent for the building and ordered the council to reconsider the application. In a landmark ruling, Justice Patrick Keane said the council could not ignore the design for one of the largest buildings in Auckland.
After seeing the redesigned tower plans last week, the panel concluded it was "not of appropriate scale to the predominant heritage character of the area" and should be scaled back, including a reduction in height. The panel also wanted the appearance of the tower to be lightened, a visually lighter and simpler roof and changes to differentiate the podium and tower block.
Norfolk Trustee property manager Angela Wells yesterday said the company would consider the panel's concerns about appearance, materials, the roof and appearance of bulk but would not reduce the height for commercial reasons. It complied with the central area district plan, she said. "It [the building] makes a nice landmark for the site. If you look at overseas cities, 36 stories isn't that high," she said.
The building, being marketed as The Antipodean, involved restoring the Spanish mission-style St James Theatre built in 1928. The original tower, hidden since the 1950s, will be uncovered by demolishing the former Odeon/Regent/Westend picture theatre buildings.
Papers released to the Herald under the Official Information Act show that Norfolk Trustee wants the building to escape public scrutiny when the council reconsiders the application for resource consent.
In a letter to the council on December 23 last year, Norfolk Trustee lawyer David Kirkpatrick said there was no basis for saying the effects of the design of the building were "adverse in respect of anyone in particular, or more than minor in respect of the environment generally". The resource consent should be "non-notified".
The judicial review was brought by the lobby group, Urban Auckland, on the grounds that the building received a "non-notified" resource consent. Central area planning manager Vijay Lala said the council had given no indication to the company that the resource consent would be handled on a non-notified basis "and every indication that we will process it on its merits with an open mind". A member of Urban Auckland, Don McRae, said it was a major building in a special area of Queen St and should be subject to public scrutiny.
NZ HERALD: Wednesday Dec 15, 2004. By Anne Gibson
Apartment developer Paul Doole will have the eagle's nest atop his proposed St James apartment block in Auckland if it gets built.Norfolk Trustee property manager Angela Wells said Doole would use the top two floors on the 36-level Queen St building for his own residence. The block is expected to become a sister tower to Andrew Krukziener's Metropolis apartment high-rise. Krukziener also had his residence at the top of this block, commanding the city's best views.
A lobby group is scheduled to meet representatives of developers involved in the 307-unit St James proposal today to try to iron out differences about the project. Paul Brown, of Clark Brown Architects, who designed the block for Doole, said the first tower proposal had been redesigned. He said a series of digitally enhanced photographs of Auckland's CBD would be presented to lobby group Urban Auckland today in the hope the two could begin discussions. The images show how the apartment tower proposal could look once it is built on a site opposite the Civic Theatre.
The High Court at Auckland overturned the block's resource consent this month and ordered Auckland City Council to reconsider the application for the tower.
If the tower at 302 Queen St goes ahead, it will be called The Antipodean.
NZ HERALD: Tuesday Dec 07, 2004. By Bernard Orsman and Brian Rudman
The High Court has overturned a resource consent for a 36-storey apartment building on the site of the historic St James Theatre in Queen St and ordered Auckland City Council to reconsider the application.
The council had granted a "non-notified" resource consent to developers Norfolk Trustee Company Ltd for what Justice Patrick Keane said would become one of the largest buildings in Auckland. The application would therefore escape the public scrutiny expected under the Resource Management Act.
Justice Keane said council officials had become "myopically" fixated on heritage issues and almost ignored the design of the tower block, which would be almost as high as the 40-level Metropolis apartments. He said that "even a cursory glance at the plans and elevations ... suggests at once that it is the tower block by its sheer mass and height, which will define this building from the street. "Yet this reality is not remarked on, except in passing, in any documents that council's committee was given to consider. Nor were its implications under the design criteria spelt out."
Justice Keane rejected Auckland City's argument that it could not set out rules on design. He said a purpose of the act was to enable people and communities to provide for their social, economic and cultural wellbeing. Therefore, aesthetics were "an indispensable concern in every planning regime and for every consent authority."
The decision is a victory for urban design lobby group Urban Auckland, which had sought a judicial review of the August 2003 resource consent. The group contended that the specialist council report into this development - on one of the most central, public, historic, prominent and visible locations in urban New Zealand - had devoted just three paragraphs to the design of the tower block.
Spokesman Don McRae said it was a landmark decision that was desperately needed. Auckland City planning director Dr Jill McPherson welcomed the decision, saying it allowed the council to give more weight to urban design issues - a key goal for Mayor Dick Hubbard and the new council. Dr McPherson said the council had been unsure of the legal status of its urban design panel, set up last year to vet and improve the architecture of new central city buildings. It could now use the panel with more confidence.
"The Resource Management Act doesn't state urban design as an issue that we can look at. We have been advocating to Government that urban design go into revisions under way at the moment because we didn't think it was strong enough."
Dr McPherson said the council asked developer Paul Doole to submit the apartment tower to the urban design panel but he declined. Speaking from Australia yesterday, Mr Doole said he would be reviewing "all paths" for the project. He did not wish to make any other comment on the the future of the apartment tower, which involved restoring the historic Spanish mission-style theatre built in 1928, exposing an obscured tower covered by claddings since the 1950s and demolishing the former Odeon/Regent/Westend picture theatre buildings
