KEY POINTS:
After five years, the plans for the Aotea Square revamp are at last out for final public consultation. I think the plans offer a bland "international" appearance, lacking the local character that will identify our town square as a key feature of Auckland City.
In the opening of
the public consultation, much was made of the geographical and historical context of the site - but precious little of either is reflected in the plan.
There are two local aspects that could and should be echoed in our rebuilt town square.
Queen St runs along the valley of the former Waihorotiu (Horotiu Stream), later to become the Ligar Canal and now completely buried under sealed roads and buildings. The site of Aotea Square could be considered the origin of the Waihorotiu as several tributaries joined it here, feeding a marsh that extended down to what is now Wellesley St.
On a triangular headland between two of the tributaries stood the small village of Horotiu. As far as I can see neither the stream nor the pre-Pakeha occupation are echoed in the current designs.
At the very start of the Auckland settlement in 1840, the nascent Queen St extended just a short distance up a fern-clad gully alongside a tidal creek. As the town rapidly grew from a handful of settlers to 5000 by 1850, Queen St was projected further south. The lower course of the Waihorotiu (below Wellesley St) was well documented as it wriggled down the western side of Queen St.
Gradually the stream was straightened and channelled between timber and brick walls, crossed at intervals by four rickety footbridges. In a few short years the Waihorotiu had become the infamous Ligar Canal, named after the Surveyor-General of the day.
The canal hampered development on the west side of Queen St and there was also public controversy over the unsavoury smells emanating from it. These two pressures drove the authorities to begin covering over "the gulph" in 1846, but it was to take decades to completely enclose the canal.
Although buildings cover much of the inner city and the landform has been heavily modified, the upper Waihorotiu valley can be seen coming down from the Karangahape Rd ridge through Myers Park.
To the west and more or less parallel is a tributary valley from below the YMCA in Pitt St, running down between the buildings in Greys Ave and Vincent St.#Deep excavation for the civic carpark some 40 years ago clobbered the village site and any remnant of the confluence of the two streams. Unfortunately there was no archaeological dig of this area at the time, though some of those who worked on the carpark project later reported that traces of the ancient settlement were found.
Of course, the whole design for the square need not revolve around a historical perspective. My proposal is for a relatively minor change to the plans (at no extra expense) to adequately reflect some of our city's early heritage in our premier public space.