For the 2020 plan, Boffa Miskell was engaged in a wide-ranging content lead and co-ordination role working strategically across all areas of the programme. This has been a design leadership role, working closely with the client team to review the 2012 plan, retain and refine what was still relevant, and lead the development of new content to underpin updated and new ideas and outcomes to support the 2020 vision. The 2020 vision has been clear in placing Maori Outcomes as its top priority, followed closely by enabling Access for Everyone (A4E) – the Council’s new strategy for reducing the amount of unnecessary vehicular traffic on streets across the city centre.

A4E underpins much of the refreshed CCMP, helping to enable the much more liveable, inclusive and accessible vision as set out by the transformational moves and opportunities.

Early on in the process, we facilitated a stakeholder forum and developed a ‘user needs’ approach to help test and refine the ideas of A4E through the development of a case study for the High Street area – work which has subsequently informed both the A4E access strategy and the High Street tactical urbanism trials now being implemented.

Our later work has involved an editorial eye across the development of all digital content, and the production of a number of high-quality graphics to explain key concepts and opportunities and importantly, to allow users to ‘explore the city centre by project area’, with a series of 3D model views pulling together opportunities and aspects of multiple key moves and project opportunities for different areas within the city centre. A series of street explainers demonstrate how A4E will change the city centre’s streets. User testing has demonstrated this is the most engaging part of the website and allows people to quickly build up an understanding of what it all might add up to for any given area of the city centre.

The CCMP 2020 was endorsed by the Council in March 2020 with the website going live in April 2020.

For Boffa Miskell, this work has been a chance to continue our long-running involvement in the urban design leadership for the City Centre, helping to both create and realise the future vision on the ground. Inspired by the idea of ‘designing like you give a damn’ – just like our Auckland Council client – there couldn’t be a better time for the ideas and key moves within the CCMP 2020 to start shaping and supporting the future we are already creating right now in the brave new post-COVID-19 world.