Impetus for change

Bob Harvey. Photo / Greg Bowker

When Bob Harvey visited Cindy Gallop's apartment in New York he freaked out.

The Waitakere City mayor, in New York for the Mayors for Peace conference, had been encouraged to visit by Tim Gregory, a Waitarua resident active convinced IfWeRanTheWorld could protect and preserve the "Waitakere way".

Harvey began to get unnerved as approached the apartment's huge white-painted metal doors. Inside he immediately recognised the windows.

"I go into her apartment and I think: this is worse than deja vu and I have lived in this place in anther life."

Turns out he had. Gallop's apartment inhabits a 325sq m space on West 23rd St that was once the locker and shower rooms of the old YMCA building. In 1969 while pursuing an advertising career, a broke Harvey stayed at the very same place for US$5 a night.

Today it's been transformed.

Modelled on a Shanghai bar, the space is entirely black - walls, ceiling and carpet - and a showcase for Gallop's eclectic collections. That includes 250-plus pairs of designer stilettos, a framed AK-47 stamped with the Chanel logo and a gold-painted Gucci chainsaw.

Animal heads adorn the walls alongside large contemporary paintings, including Gallop's favourite artist, Paul Richard, from whom she commissioned a self-portrait. Antique Chinese wedding and opium beds, along with two gray chinchilla sofas, and animal rugs on the floor, fill some of the open space in the living room and the bedroom. There are also erotic Asian art ceramics, a pink-and-yellow Yves Saint Laurent light installation, and a black leather YSL bustier that Gallop wears on special occasions.

Harvey says he has been worried for some time what would happen to Waitakere's hard-won environmental and cultural projects when city "goes out of existence" later this year.

He was impressed by Tim Gregory's idea to keep those values alive through IfWeRanTheWorld.

"Tim comes out of the advertising business [DDB NZ] like me, so we both are advertising people and recognise a terrific idea." Harvey is also thoroughly impressed by Gallop: "I thought: this is one of the good and great women of the world. Both of us are trend merchants."

He says the council has provided some assistance to Gregory to investigate using the site to ensure the continuation of Waitakere projects - especially those involving sustainability.

Gregory wants to create a Waitakere hub on the site and is in discussion with several Waitakere initiatives such as Project Twin Streams, the Water Ambassadors Programme, Safe Waitakere, the McLaren Park Henderson South Community initiative and the Ranui Action Project.

Gallop describes Gregory as "a human dynamo" - essential in driving such an community action platform.