Dunedin – April 15, 2016
Auckland engineering and design consultants Harrison Grierson has won a second major New Zealand Planning Institute (NZPI) award for its work on the big Scott Point housing project at the Hobsonville Peninsula.
Tonight, Harrison Grierson won the prestigious Nancy Northcroft Supreme Best Practice Award at the NZPI conference gala awards dinner in Dunedin.
NZPI chief executive Susan Houston says the highly successful project provided about 3000 new homes and established the long-term development framework for such a large greenfield area.
“This work has been pivotal in easing the heated Auckland housing market so Harrison Grierson, with support from the Auckland Council, have been rightly been recognised with this prestigious award,” Houston says.
Jordyn Landers won the Reginald Hammond Memorial Scholarship award. Landers demonstrated strong practical, analytical and problem-solving skills and exhibits a creative talent for communicating her ideas in her planning masters degree at Otago University.
The YMCA Camp Adair Wastewater Management Strategy, which developed a wastewater management strategy for continued discharges from a wastewater treatment plant, won the Integrated Planning and Investigations Best Practice Award.
Established in 1913 and operated by the YMCA since 1938, Camp Adair is an Auckland regional recreational outdoor facility by the foothills of the Hunua Ranges for more than 10,000 school children and family groups annually.
The camp is well away from the reticulated wastewater network and wastewater from the camp has been managed by an on-site wastewater treatment plant that has historically discharged treated wastewater to the Wairoa River.
The principal outcome of the project was the camp can continue to provide the cultural and social well-being of future generations without the need to spend millions of dollars to develop otherwise unnecessary infrastructure to dispose of wastewater to land.
The YMCA’s consultant team of Beca (planning, environmental science, process engineering), ESR (public health risk) and Boffa Miskell (aquatic ecology) brought a focused, multi-disciplinary approach to solving a decade long problem: What could be done to best gain a long-term consent to manage wastewater discharges from an outdoor camp facility
Opus International Consultants, Waikato-Tainui and the NZ Transport Agency won the Best Practice Commendation award for Consultation and Participation Strategies and Processes. The three parties have collaborated over a number of years in preparing the Waikato-Tainui Mitigation Plan for the Hamilton section of the Waikato Expressway.
The Mitigation Plan does much more than seek to mitigate cultural effects occurring as a result of the roading project. Its focus has been to reconnect affiliated Waikato-Tainui hapu with land that has been alienated from them for over 150 years, as a result of the Crown’s invasion of the Waikato in 1863 and subsequent confiscation of Maori land.
The Mitigation Plan sets a new benchmark for addressing cultural effects on large-scale projects that can easily be applied to other planning processes. Importantly, its preparation is underpinned by the need for a collaborative approach, requiring Maori and non-Maori to work together in good faith. In many respects, the very essence of the latest Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms that seek to increase Maori involvement in resource management processes, is already in practice on this project.
Christchurch City Council, Christchurch Earthquake Recovery Authority (CERA) and the Matapopore Charitable Trust won the Strategic Planning and Guidance best practice award.
The Streets and Spaces Design Guide is a benchmark document for urban regeneration in terms of the type of information it combines and the format in which the information is presented. The Guide is a non-statutory document prepared by the Central City Development Unit (part of CERA) and Christchurch City Council in partnership with Matapopore Trust on behalf of Te Ngāi Tūāhuriri Rūnanga.
The implementation of the Guide contributes not only to the achievement of the objectives of the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan but, in the long term, creates a legacy on which to build social and economic vitality.
Work on Auckland’s old Nelson St off ramp cycleway earned GHD, New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA), Novare and Monk Mackenzie the Rodney Davies Award.
The NZTA led an initiative to improve walking and cycling connectivity throughout Auckland. The old Nelson Street Off Ramp Cycleway project was backed by broader initiatives for improvements outlined in the central motorway junction walking and
cycling master plan in 2012.
The project included a 160m steel bridge that was constructed entirely off site and lifted into place overnight; 295 interactive LED lighting columns; 15 Maori carving panels, one 6m high Pou and the entire surface painted magenta with a Koru artwork at the Union Street end of the cycleway. The Canada Street Bridge was shortlisted for the Infrastructure Future Project Award at the 2015 World Architecture Festival and has since become an iconic piece of Auckland infrastructure.
The Consultation and Participation Strategies and Processes Best Practice Award went to the Well-Connected Alliance, Auckland Council and the Albert-Eden Local Board for their Waterview Connection: Design of Waterview Playground project.
Finally, Planz Consultants, Athfield Architects and the Canterbury Cricket Association won a Rodney Davies project commendation for Christchurch’s Hagley Oval redevelopment.
Houston says the project displayed innovative and creative excellence in planning and design incorporating strong design principles and careful integration into the surrounding environment. The outcome has been both a highly aesthetic and functional end use facility achieved within an extremely tight timeframe.
The Hagley Oval Redevelopment has created a world class cricket venue which provided the scene for a very poignant occasion in hosting the opening match of the 2015 Cricket World Cup on the 14 February 2015 showing Christchurch was back on its feet after the earthquakes. The UK Guardian newspaper has described Hagley Oval as “a wonderful adornment to the game and to the city”.
For further information contact Susan Houston, NZPI chief executive, on 021 083 45603 or Make Lemonade media specialist Kip Brook on 0275 030188
