Huge landscaping overhaul in the works for Pukenamu Queen’s Park in Whanganui

Queen's Park Pukenamu covers around seven hectares. Photo / Bevan Conley

A years-long landscaping project covering the whole of Pukenamu Queen’s Park is under way.

The designers behind it are Warren and Mahoney - the architectural firm responsible for the Sarjeant Gallery redevelopment’s Pātaka o Sir Te Atawhai Archie John Taiaroa wing.

Whanganui District Council’s property and open spaces general manager Sarah O’Hagan said landscaping had to sync with the gallery redevelopment.

“We (council) had a go at doing the design before - 20-odd years ago - so this is long overdue.

“The opening of the Sarjeant, as the cornerstone building in the park, is the catalyst.”

Originally, the new wing was to have Oamaru stone cladding.

In August last year, that design was changed to black granite with shiny steel ‘Tioata’ inserts to give the effect of light shimmering on the water.

“What this new project is doing is picking up those concepts and that thinking and bleeding it out into the landscape,” O’Hagan said.

“In doing that, we obviously have a wider group of stakeholders.

“That goes all the way from the Repertory Theatre to the RSA, because there is war memorabilia in the park, to people with botanical interests.”

O’Hagan said a final design would be ready towards the end of the year and funding to implement it needed to be provisioned through the council’s long-term plan.

Whanganui District Council chief executive David Langford said the park covered seven hectares in total.

“It’s a project we’ll have to do in stages, over the years,” he said.

“I think it’s around five hectares once you remove the footprints of all the buildings, but it’s still a big old park and if you tried to do everything in one go, it would be massive.

“We would need to spread the cost over time if nothing else.”

The bank behind the Repertory Theatre on Ridgway St has been pushing into the building for a number of years, and while stabilising it was a separate project, it had been delayed so council “didn’t spend money twice”, O’Hagan said.

“What we didn’t want to do was go ahead and stabilise the bank using a retaining wall, only to find out that we were putting a footpath through there as part of the (landscaping) design.”

She said it was too early to say what the design might look like but some of it would be guided by the reserve management plan for the park.

“One thing that really came through (from the plan) was storytelling, and we have a lot of different stories with respect to Pukenamu Queen’s Park.

“There are the cultural stories, the stockade stories, the colonial military stories, and we’ve got stories associated with the gallery for example.

“We want to be able to tell those stories to visitors. How we do that is what we will think about through this process.”

Other key themes from the management plan were wayfinding and lighting.

“It’s quite a dark space in the evenings, so what are the opportunities to brighten it up?” O’Hagan said.

“All these things are being explored through the design.”