BRITOMART CENTRAL
Queen Elisabeth Square
Pigeon In Queen Elisabeth Square
It’s a Tuesday in 2014. Here I am. In Queen Elisabeth Square. A grand space enclosed by waterfront buildings - wide, open, beautiful sunlight. A panorama of facades resonates into the forecourt. Eleven o’clock sunlight polishes the glass facade of the Zurich tower. The opposite side of the square is in shade, pleasantly blue. A wonderful array of noises, conversations, pigeons and footsteps on the paved stone fill the space, sheltered by the enclosing buildings. Only a gentle murmuring of the city can be heard.
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Atmosphere
Kbisu, Union Fish Co. Building
Whats moving me i asked? Everything. The objects themselves, the people, the air, noises, smell, colors, material presences, textures, forms. What else? My mood, my feelings, the sense of expectation that filled me whilst sitting there. The atmosphere is unique, it has the potential to be a beautiful, vibrant and a socially exciting
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Britomart Train Station - Zurich - HSBC
Highball Crystal Glass
The Britomart Train Station is silent and heavy like a stone mass, the Zurich Tower light and ephemeral like a highball crystalline glass and the HSBC tower a composed thin dark polished granite wall. All connected by a beautifully articulated cobblestone blanket, stretching then entire area.
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Princes Wharf
Vaiduct Water
There was nothing dramatic about the water today. They weren’t barreling breakers throwing up clouds of spray as the slammed against the viaduct wharf. More like rush-hour commuters at Customs and Queen, the little crests passed this way and that, crossing each other’s paths chaotically. Their movement memorizing. The HSBC Tower and Harbourside building watch the water, their reflection bleeds of black granite and orange clay colors.
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Albert Street
Slope of Lower Albert Street
The beautiful gradient of Albert Street gently ramps down, receiving a wide and open outlook onto the Viaduct. A light sea breeze fills the open space of the street, a subtle smell and taste of salt lingers in the air, your proximity to the waterfront is acknowledged. A sky bridge connects Downtown Shopping Center and PWC Tower, suspending people above the road, a stunning observation deck into and out of the city. One of the most beautiful thoroughfares in Auckland filled with exhausts fumes, parked cars, road signs and radiating heat from hot tar seal, turned into a stunning urban and social environment.
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Te Ara Tahuhu
Cobblestone floor
Aligned with Britomart Train Station, Tahuhu walkway carves its way through the Downtown Shopping Centre bringing Queen Elisabeth Square with it. An atrium connecting Queen & Albert street is created. Paved stones from the square wash through the atrium like water sweeping onto the shore. Smell and sound drift through the space, end to end.
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Quay St - HSBC Retail
HSBC Retail
Exhaust fumes, cigarette smoke and cologne from a passing businessman. Retail spaces filled with Souvenir shops, pride of our country. Jade Centre tucked behind closed glass doors. Beautifully wide footpath, orange bricks weaved like flax. Black granite wall of the HSBC Tower meet, dark shadow casted from the large overhang. Tourists flood the space, should this be a place for Tourism? Entry into the city from the harbor, a side path with huge potential, beautiful proportions.
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