Te Tōangaroa: Auckland Stadium

Boffa Miskell is part of the design team for Te Tōangaroa Consortium; which is seeking to deliver a fit-for-purpose sports stadium on the edge of Auckland‘s City Centre, within walking distance from Britomart Station, Commercial Bay and the Viaduct Precinct.

More than a stadium, the Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Te Tōangaroa precinct will provide a new venue for Auckland, offering an expanded and diverse range of commercial, residential, retail, hospitality, education and hotels on the site. The development will be the eastern bookend for the on-going development of Auckland Central.

The site, Te Tōangaroa, has been largely neglected, and has been given over to train tracks and weeds for years. It's close to Spark Area, which will become an integral part of the wider precinct. The new stadium will be elevated above the rail lines, while hotels and a range of commercial and residential buildings will also occupy the space. The wider landscape design is underpinned by the opportunity to revitalise and improve a current brownfield site in the City Centre.

This opportunity has strong alignment with the City Centre Masterplan 2020 and its updated Transformational Moves related to Māori Outcomes and the East-West Stitch.

Māori Outcomes anticipates a range of interventions and systemic changes to bring Mana Whenua presence, Māori identity and life into the city centre and waterfront; while the East-West Stitch proposes to stitch the city centre together eastward and westward. Land at both these edges of the city centre is under-used and under-valued, and cut off by major roads.

The Te Tōangaroa | Auckland Stadium project can become a catalyst for the integrated planning that can unlock the potential of this area. The project directly relates to, and supports the East City portion of the recently-released City Centre Action Plan led by Eke Panuku.

Associate partner Pete Whiting leads the Boffa Miskell design team. He says, "There will be no question that you're at Te Tōangaroa in Tāmaki Makaurau when you visit the precinct."

A focal point of the stadium concept design is the large opening at the eastern end which provides iconic views of Rangitoto, enhancing the stadium’s connection to its scenic surroundings.

"The design of the stadium itself is very much underpinned by connections to Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei’s cultural narratives," Pete continues. "These quintessential expressions of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland will be captured in the broader landscape setting of the new stadium and associated buildings at Te Tōangaroa/Quay Park."

The wider design team is comprised of architects HKS, Buchan Group, and TOA; engineers Aurecon and Robert Bird Limited; project managers Turner & Townsend; and planners Barker & Associates.