18 minute read
Auckland, p8
WORDS: CAITLIN SYKES • IMAGERY: PETER DRURY
IN good COMPANY
Residents of central Auckland’s Shortland Flats have been building a great place to live for almost 100 years
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“It’s a wonderful building, isn’t it?” Shortland Flats resident the late Gyles Baskett would say to his friends Ardeth Lobet and Michael McKeown when they dropped him home after nights out.
To the couple, the Gothic Revival apartment block on Auckland’s Shortland Street was obviously a handsome building, but the question confused them because Gyles himself was blind.
“But then he’d say, ‘It’s what’s inside’,” recalls Michael. “‘It’s the people who live there’.”
A Category 2 historic place, Shortland Flats calls itself “a small community of owners and residents creating a great place to live since 1923”. And after almost a century it’s clear that those who live there still feel like they’re in good company.
1 Residents Russell Cartmell, Athena Wu and son Raphy enjoy Shortland Flats’ communal rooftop space. 2 Mik Smellie at the entrance to the flats. 3 Bruce Ross takes in the view from the building’s roof. 4 Ardeth Lobet and Michael McKeown in Shortland Flats’ handsome lobby. 2
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“I feel very safe and comfortable here, because when I pass people on the stairs or in the lift I recognise them, I know them,” says Ardeth, who took her friend’s words on board and bought into the building with Michael in 1999.
“And I grew up in old houses, so I love the high ceilings, and that the rooms aren’t shoeboxes.”
Sitting with Ardeth and Michael in Flat 16, it’s immediately evident that Michael shares a love of the building. His knowledge of the place, and its history, verges on encyclopaedic.
When Shortland Flats was built, he explains, strata or unit titles, which are used today to apportion ownership of a flat within a building, didn’t exist. Instead, a flat-owning company structure was used, whereby a flat owner bought a shareholding in a company – Shortland Flats Limited – that gave them the licence to occupy a flat.
The company was incorporated on 7 December 1922, construction began in 1923 and the first resident moved in in May 1924. The project was conceived in part as an investment vehicle for those associated with the building’s construction – evidenced by the company’s original shareholder register. Michael notes this included not only two of its architects and the structural engineer, but also the owners of the companies responsible for its steel windows, plumbing and electrical wiring.
This meant the building was initially highly tenanted. However, the historical nature of the building’s company ownership structure, which remains in place today, is what many residents say now fosters its great sense of community.
1 Mik Smellie at home in Flat 20.
2 Shortland Flats is one of a number of fashionable inner-city apartment blocks built in the inter-war period close to Albert Park,
Old Government House and the Northern Club.
3 Visitors can announce their arrival the old-fashioned way.
4 A brass door hook in a vestibule.
5 Shortland Flats’ main entrance.
Shortland Flats is led by a volunteer board of directors (Michael currently co-chairs, alongside Ross Craig of Flat 9) who are elected by the company’s shareholders and must be shareholders themselves. Operating along the lines of a body corporate, the directors set the annual shareholder levy, which covers the rates and ongoing care and maintenance of the building, and the rules that govern it.
One of the building’s longstanding rules is that a potential shareholder must attend an interview with the directors prior to being added to the shareholder register. While getting the directors’ tick of approval is generally painless, it’s always a condition on the sale of a flat, which in turn means the flats are rarely sold at auction. Given this, flats often change hands off-market.
Such was the case for Shortland Flats director Mik Smellie, who bought a shareholding with his partner Barbara McCulloch and moved into Flat 20 around five years ago.
“Ardeth and Michael, who we knew, caught wind of the fact we were going to open homes and said there might be something coming up for sale in their building. We had dinner with them and wandered around, and I was deeply impressed with the communal DVD collection in the basement. It signalled to me this was a place where people connected – plus the titles were all things I liked watching,” he recalls with a laugh.
“That process of shoulder tapping creates a network of people in the building; it’s not a tight web, but it does create a connectedness.”
He points to other rules that incentivise shareholders to be owner-occupiers. Those who rent out their flats pay an additional 66 percent on their annual shareholder levy, for example, and flats can’t be used for Airbnb.
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“In a lot of buildings there are these competing differences between owner-occupiers, who are invested in making places their homes, and investors, who are generally invested in maximising their profits then moving on. So having that high owneroccupancy rate creates a sense of community.”
It also helps with the care and maintenance of the heritage building. Many Shortland Flats residents
See more of Shortland Flats: youtube.com/ HeritageNewZealand PouhereTaonga
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say that owner-occupiers generally take better care of their surroundings. The board now also has a long-term maintenance plan for the building, with the associated costs factored in to the annual shareholder levy. And as it is a company, the building can obtain bank finance for large projects.
At the time of writing, for example, the first stage of a major project to refurbish the building’s lift was in progress – expensive work that under other management structures and arrangements could have required an unpopular special levy.
“There aren’t that many buildings of this age in the Auckland city centre, and we’re one of a very small handful of flats,” notes Mik.
“So many of us have a sense of custodianship, a sense that this place is ours at the moment but that we need to be looking after it for those who are coming next.”
Community building is a focus more generally for Mik, who produces the Vertical Voice newsletter for the central city’s apartment-dwelling community and co-manages the City Centre Market, which brings fresh produce to shoppers at Freyberg Place on Saturday mornings.
Making the most of central-city living is one of the things Bruce Ross of Flat 12A (in keeping with superstition, the building has no Flat 13) has enjoyed since he and Maud Cahill became joint shareholders a year after visiting the flats on a heritage tour organised by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga in 2017.
“During the tour we had lunch on the roof and a nice talk with the people who lived here. We just fell in love with the building and said we’d be interested if ever a flat became available.”
For Maud, who has owned central-city secondhand bookstore Jason Books for 20 years, the shift from
North Shore’s Narrow Neck to the flats reduced her commute from an hour to minutes.
“We love the fact we can walk in Albert Park and the Domain, which was great through Covid lockdowns. I particularly enjoy music and opera, so I love being able to walk to the Auckland Town Hall for concerts,” says Bruce.
Despite being stymied by Covid-19 restrictions more recently, Bruce also enjoys the building’s regular gettogethers, such as the rooftop barbecue held around Neighbours’ Day and a progressive dinner that wends its way from the lobby up the building’s six floors.
The couple are also among other residents who have thrown themselves into contributing to Shortland Flats’ upcoming centenary celebrations, which will encompass events starting this year and ending in 2024. Maud has been searching through archives of company reports to track down past residents and shareholders, for example, while Bruce has been organising photography for a booklet to mark the milestone and capturing video of some of the building’s historic features.
And a new generation of residents already seems to be making the most of the sense of community the flats foster.
Shortland Flats director Athena Wu bought her first flat in the building almost a decade ago, and later purchased another, Flat 17, where she lives with her four-year-old son Raphy. She says many people were surprised to hear she continued with apartment living after Raphy was born, but she says access to the flats’ rooftop space and nearby Albert Park means they’ve never felt hemmed in.
“I have photos of Raphy going from flat to flat as he learnt to walk. All the residents love him, and his being able to visit has really taken the pressure off me at times. Some of the residents are almost like adopted grandparents – they come to his birthday parties and give him gifts at Christmas,” she says.
“I lived in a number of buildings around town before purchasing at Shortland Flats, but I never knew my neighbours. In this place though, everyone is so friendly. It was just different, right from the beginning.”
1 Bruce Ross at home in
Flat 12A.
2 Historic images of central
Auckland adorn the stairwell walls.
3 A switchboard, circa 1935, has been retained in the basement as a reminder of what once was.
4 Electrical fuses, circa 1923, while no longer in use, have been retained in the lobby.
5 A new generation is making a home at
Shortland Flats.
WORDS: ROBYN HUNT • IMAGERY: BRAD BONIFACE
With almost a quarter of all New Zealanders living with disabilities, what can be done to enable better access to our shared heritage?
Ramps and accessible toilets – it’s a lingering view that many people have of what’s required to make a place accessible. But for the 24 percent of New Zealanders who live with disabilities (according to Stats NZ) spanning a wide range of impairments, accessibility encompasses much more.
Accessibility is a complex, multifaceted area. It can incorporate anything from ensuring buildings are physically accessible to those with mobility impairments, to providing information in a range of formats such as New Zealand Sign Language, Braille, large print, audio and captioned, and creating specific experiences for neurodiverse and autistic people who might struggle with sensory overload.
Enabling good access at heritage sites has further dimensions, notes Andrew Coleman, Chief Executive of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.
Andrew acknowledges that most listed heritage buildings were not constructed with disability access in mind – “We all live with the legacy of the past,” he says.
Today the level of awareness of accessibility is still not high, but Andrew is upbeat about enabling access in its broadest form and says people have yet to make the most of the opportunities that come from embracing accessibility.
And the opportunities are many.
According to Be. Lab, an organisation founded in 2011 with the aim of creating a 100 percent accessible New Zealand by making our society open to all, “we benefit from everyone’s contributions, and create greater opportunities to thrive”. It also notes the benefits of tapping in to the “access dollar”, citing that the access market controls more than US$13 trillion in annual disposable income globally and that baby boomers – who develop access needs as they age – are spending more on consumer goods and leisure activities than any other generation. Prudence Walker is Chief Executive of the Disabled Persons Assembly NZ, a national pan-disability disabled people’s organisation. She agrees that accessibility is a broad area encompassing much more than ramps and toilets – important as they are for those who need them. For those keen to improve accessibility, Prudence suggests that wide consultation with disabled people and their organisations in local areas can be helpful. One important consideration when it comes to access is providing clear accessibility information on websites and other documentation that enables disabled people to make decisions about their visits, says Prudence. This could include information about 1 accessible or regular public transport, the
1 Wellington Museum includes ‘smell and touch’ items, uses New Zealand
Sign Language and has run audio description tours. 2 Wellington Museum’s accessible entry is also the building’s main entrance.
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availability of accessible parking and accessible entrances and basic accessibility information about the facilities themselves. Access to clear information via a link on a website’s home page is a good start.
Wellington Museum Te Waka Huia o Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho, a Category 1 historic place, is one example of this. An accessibility link, which is easily found on its home page, leads to detailed information about wheelchair, lift and toilet access, signage, how to get there, times for low-sensory access, and a social story in accessible format. The museum includes ‘smell and touch’ items, uses New Zealand Sign Language and has run audio description tours.
Significantly, Wellington Museum’s accessible entry is also the building’s main entrance; everyone can use the same entrance. The opportunity to make such enhancements to the building’s accessibility was taken as part of a wider restoration of the building, which also successfully preserved its heritage character.
However, this is achievable to varying extents at heritage sites, where retaining heritage values needs to be balanced with providing functional and safe access for disabled users.
Andrew Coleman notes that disabled access is often incorporated when buildings are being strengthened and adapted, although funding for such work can be an issue for major projects.
Work to improve accessibility was undertaken as part of an upgrade of Te Whare Waiutuutu Kate Sheppard House, a Category 1 historic place, after the former residential home was purchased by the government in 2019. The property is now open to the public and cared for by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.
Today, everyone uses the same elegant entrance and can easily move around the rooms and access facilities. Staff have a ‘can do’ attitude, aim to learn some New Zealand Sign Language and welcome diverse communities, such as people with Alzheimer’s, who might need more time than others. There is the opportunity to get ‘hands on’ with some exhibition items, such as Victorian clothing.
A multi-million-dollar, multi-year project to seismically strengthen and upgrade Turnbull House, a Category 1 historic place managed by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, will greatly improve accessibility. The project will include installing a lift that for the first time will provide access to all the principal heritage spaces in the building, and the disability access into the house will move from the side to the front as part of a new landscape design.
The Category 1 Isaac Theatre Royal in Christchurch faced major reconstruction following the Canterbury earthquakes, and part of the vision for the project was to go above and beyond the minimum access standards. All three levels of the theatre are accessible, wheelchairaccessible seating is available in the stalls and dress circle, and there are accessible toilets. There is a hearing loop (assistive listening technology for individuals with reduced ranges of hearing) and the stage and backstage areas are accessible – considerations often neglected even in modern buildings.
Not all heritage buildings are grand, however; some have more humble origins and can be difficult to make physically accessible.
Accessibility consultant Jason Strawbridge says common issues include steps-only access, narrow doorways, and stairs with ornate
is the descriptive narration of key visual elements in a video, live-media or multimedia product, which enables blind people to access content that they cannot see.
Low-sensory tours reduce lighting and sound levels for neurodiverse and autistic people who might struggle with sensory overload.
are designed for blind and low-vision people and include elements such as touch, smell and audio descriptions, but can be enjoyed by others too.
or scripts are short narratives that are written in the first person and discuss problem situations. Scripts are important sources of information for autistic and other neurodiverse people that can be used to guide behaviour in given situations and provided in advance.
handrails. Heritage projects are challenging to work on, he says, because they require “a really big balancing act between accessibility and [retaining] a building’s heritage value”.
Another difficulty he identifies, applicable to buildings of all sizes, is the New Zealand standard covering design for access and mobility (NZS 4121:2001), which he describes as out of date. By comparison, Jason cites the Australian standard as having higher specifications that are, for example, more accommodating of larger, modern wheelchairs. However, he says he has noticed a “big cultural shift towards people wanting to provide access beyond the code”.
Katherine Mansfield House and Garden, a Category 1 historic place, is an example of a domestic dwelling that can’t accommodate physical access; it would be impossible to make the building accessible without damaging the heritage values of the entrances, narrow doorways and small internal spaces, and the staircase.
But there is recognition that there are other ways in which access can be improved. In consultation with Arts Access Aotearoa and the Deaf and disabled communities, the board and staff of the Katherine Mansfield Birthplace Society, which owns and operates Katherine Mansfield House and Garden, are developing an accessibility policy, considering options such as seating, New Zealand Sign Language tours, large-print visitor information, an audio description, and the information on its website.
Venturing into digital accessibility is certainly an option for some. Audio descriptions for blind people and those with low vision can be either downloadable from a website to a personal device or available on loaned devices during a visit if an audio-describer is not available. Virtual tours with commentaries may be expensive to make but are used effectively for some buildings in Europe (such as the Tower of London), the US and Australia.
A lower-key and less-expensive option might be a New Zealand Sign Language video introduction, which can be played on a small screen such as an iPad and run on a loop. Captioned, audio-described or sign language video content on websites can provide further information and attract new visitors.
Ultimately, disabled people understand that not every heritage building can be made physically accessible. But being open to considering the many facets of access, and providing clear information and a welcoming, helpful and open approach can make a difference.
Arts Access Aotearoa advocates for accessibility to the arts, culture and creativity for all people irrespective of disability or other barriers. In its Arts for All network meetings, specialists and community representatives share ways to make places and spaces accessible. These are open to staff of heritage and cultural visitor destinations. Contact Arts Access Aotearoa for more information: artsaccess.org.nz. Free resources and advice, such as on how to develop an accessibility policy, are also available on the website.
The New Zealand Government’s standards, advice and guidance on web accessibility can be found at: digital.
govt.nz/standards-and-guidance/design-and-ux/ accessibility
The Ministry of Social Development has a free guide to making information accessible – Accessibility Guide: Leading the way in accessible information: msd.govt.
nz/about-msd-and-our-work/work-programmes/ accessibility/accessibility-guide/index.html
There are several independent expert advisors on accessibility, including the Barrier Free Trust.
The UK National Trust’s 2019 Access Guide provides accessibility guidance and symbols for the UK heritage community. It may be a useful source of ideas in New Zealand: nt.global.ssl.fastly.net/documents/2019-access-
guide.pdf
The Smithsonian Guidelines for Accessible Exhibition Design include specific advice on elements such as lighting and height of display cabinets: sifacilities.
si.edu/sites/default/files/Files/Accessibility/accessibleexhibition-design1.pdf
The Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities offers Guidelines for Producing Clear Print (including large print): printdisability.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/09/round_table_-clear_print_ guidelines-PDF.pdf
While its standards and legislation are different from New Zealand’s, Victoria Australia’s Access to Heritage Places Guidelines may be helpful: emaa.com.au/
uploads/4/6/3/2/46326229/20180112_access_to_ heritage_buildings_guidelines_vic.pdf
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1 Sign language interpretation in the ‘A Millennium Ago’ experience,
Wellington Museum.
2 Lift access through auto-opening doors from The Attic, Wellington Museum.
3 The ‘Power to the People’ display in The Attic, Wellington Museum.
4 All the accessibility features of the Isaac Theatre Royal can be viewed interactively on its website.
