Make it a double: two awards in two days for Te Pā Harakeke

The NZILA award for Boffa Miskell designers came just one day after a Water New Zealand award for Stantec's engineering team.

On Friday night Stantec won the award for Project of the Year at the Stormwater NZ Conference and on the same weekend, Boffa Miskell won the Play Space category at the New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects Conference. 

These awards follow on from those won in 2023 when Nelson City Council earned the Healthy Park Award from Recreation Aotearoa, and Taylors Contracting and Nelmac were joint winners of a Construction Award at the Nelson Marlborough Branch of the Civil Contractors NZ awards night. Collectively, the four awards mean that every party involved in the design and construction of Te Pā Harakeke has won an award for their role.

The Judges' Citation for the Stormwater award praised the attention to detail and delivery of the project. The location of Te Pā Harakeke meant that the design included the tidal flow as one of the park’s features. The shallow parts of the park fill with water at high tide, presenting a fun area for kids to play in the sand and water.

“The client felt like the project exceeded their expectations. Te Pā Harakeke is a much-loved part of the Nelson environment. Stantec led the multi-stakeholder collaboration with the council to develop a solution with quality stormwater engineering that meets the community's needs.” 

The Judges' Citation for the NZILA Award applauded the use of natural materials.  

“The play and discovery elements are well arranged, very well resolved, use well-considered natural materials but also allow users of the space to create their own elements as well as blurring the line between the created play and the natural landscape. This project is a fine exemplar of landscape architecture in terms of design ability along with nature and place-making for the community to interpret.”