working waterfront

This project encompasses the development of the public domain associated with North Wharf, Jellicoe Street and Silo Park. These spaces promote an alternative design approach to the typical erasure of waterfront memory. Here, friction is encouraged, smelly fish are the attraction, rust, grit and patina are embraced and derelict artefacts are reprogrammed. And in response Aucklanders and visitors to Auckland have descended on Wynyard Quarter in droves soaking up all the elements.

The gritty industrial rawness of North Wharf provides a foil to the intensely urban environments of Jellicoe Street and Silo Park. The authenticity of this waterfront experience is embodied in the retention of the existing fishing fleet and fishmarket activity within the general vicinity. The daily fishmarket related bustle maintains the site’s commercial seafaring heritage, providing a colourful, vibrant and intriguing montage of activity for visitors to the harbour’s edge.

Silo Park is primarily a field of green open space between the new gantry and wetlands. Intentionally bereft of over-ornamentation the park reflects the simplicity of the industrial port environment within which it sits. The Gantry is offset by a series of brightly coloured, jauntily marooned marine buoys on one side and a vibrantly coloured boundary fence on the other that recalls off loaded cargo containers.

The crate seats that punctuate North Wharf are an overt homage to the site’s resident fishing fleet and mongering activities. Referencing upturned fishing crates, stacked and awaiting their next sea voyage, these multi-coloured seats painted in Resene colours offer engaging moments for hesitation and rest along the wharf’s length. Varied configurations of the module unit create flexible seating, gathering and interaction opportunities.

Sourced from a store of decommissioned maritime paraphernalia, the buoys have been successfully refurbished from their original rusty, worn and less than vibrant condition. The newly re-purposed buoys are placed in a dynamic formation, seemingly bobbing in their sea of green lawn, inviting play and physical contact. The colour palette for the buoys is purposely restricted to three basic colours – Resene Havoc (pure red), Resene Observatory (bright peacock green) and Resene Whiteout (warm calcite white), in a concerted effort to retain the buoys’ distinctively unique maritime character, while affording an eyecatching moment within the park’s tilting green planes. The paint system specified (Resene ArmourZinc 120, Resene Armourcote 220, Resene Uracryl 403 and Resene Uracryl 404) is designed to provide protection and adherence to the buoys’ cleaned mild steel substrate while ensuring a high quality colourfast finish.

Reminiscent of an active port wharf filled with cargo containers, the multi-coloured industrial scale boundary fence forms the interface between the working tank farm and Silo Park. The fence is conspicuously vivid; the layered fence paint system of Resene Armourcote 220, Resene Uracryl 403 and Resene Uracryl U.V. Stabilised 402 achieves rich deep colour with minimum reflectivity, while providing protection to the galvanised steel substrate. It is painted in hues of Resene Chicago (masculine grey), Resene Silver Chalice (pewter grey), Resene Bondi Blue (fast paced blue), Resene West Side (sunny orange) and Resene Daredevil (fluoro orange). Site wide timber work is finished in Resene Furniture and Decking Oil.

This project was awarded the Resene Total Colour Landscape Award. The judges appreciated that “the colour scheme throws itself out to the general public arena and draws attention and interest to key elements within a broad landscape. A beautifully rich colour palette, it is selectively used to create areas of interest to complement the silo backdrop. Colour ensures that you see the highlights as you move around the space and there is a wonderful sense of discovery as you spot something new. The palette comes together into a nice nautical feel without resorting to a cliché.”

Landscape Architects: Taylor Cullity Lethlean and Wraight + Associates
WSUD: Design Flow
Civil Engineers: Beca
Structural Engineers – Gantry: Felicetti , BGT Auckland
Structural Engineers – General: Beca
Lighting Design: Electrolight, Ecubed
Architecture North Wharf Buildings: Fearon Hay
Services Engineers: Hyder Consulting
Contractors: Dominion – Jellicoe Street, City Parks (Auckland City Council) – planting, Total Spaces Silo Park
Client Group: Sea + City (now Waterfront Auckland),
MPM Projects – Project Manager, Tangata Whenua Consultative Committee, Technical Advisory Group, Auckland City Council,
Auckland Regional Council, Urban Design Review Team
Photography: Simon Devitt
Winner: Resene Total Colour Landscape Award
Project: Resene Total Colour Awards 2012
From the Resene News – issue 4/2012

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