Creating a public plaza within a private development that maintains and reflects the quality of the adjacent public realm.

The ANZ Centre is a large scale podium refurbishment that sought to significantly improve the public space surrounding the building. Precinct Properties wanted the public plaza to maintain and reflect the quality of the adjacent public realm (St Patrick’s Square). The challenge was delivering the project within the tight timeframes, being part of a large multi-discipline design team and working with an existing structure and the design parameters that were set over 25 years ago. Landscape architects Boffa Miskell were brought on board at an early stage to help with the re-design of the plaza at the base of the tower, bordering Swanson and Federal Streets.

Client

Precinct Properties

Location

Auckland

Project team

Rachel de Lambert

Worked with

Cathy Challinor

Project date

2013

Awards

Supreme Award | Property Council Awards
Best in Category | Commercial Office Property Award | Property Council Awards

Their award-winning work on the adjacent St Patricks Square project certainly influenced the outcome, says Landscape Architect Cathy Challinor. “There was a definite intention to visually connect the two and create the feel of a single space,” says Challinor. Challinor adds that the simplicity of the end result belies the complexity of the design and technical challenges on the project – referring to the fact that the plaza is built on top of an existing car park roof structure, and the design had to work within constraints of the podium roof structure, existing and new building floor levels and entries, and the surrounding public footpath network.

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