Vitriol aplenty but no praise for Auckland's architecture

The Auckland Central Police Station looks like "a scaled-up toy" according to architect Aaron Sills. Picture / Greg Bowker

Herald readers have nominated more ugly buildings in Auckland, including one dating back to the 1960s and a modern public building in Manukau City.

Readers were asked to send in what they think are Auckland's best and worst examples of architecture and urban design. Examples of the worst have flooded in, but no reader has nominated the best.

The request was in response to an initiative by the Mayor of Auckland City, Dick Hubbard, setting up a task force to halt bad architecture.

The first nominations published last week included apartment buildings and the 18-storey Auckland City Council building in Aotea Square.

In the latest lot, apartment buildings continue to infuriate readers.

One nominated all the buildings in Albany's Oteha Valley Rd.

"Anyone involved in the planning permission or construction of those buildings should be hung and quartered, or even worse, made to live in them ... In fact we should make it the North Shore City Council offices."

Another reader nominated the apartments at 8 Burgoyne St in Newton as "the ugliest of them all" and instantly recognisable. "If you live in Auckland you will know that there are many finalists for the ugliest award. Most people who return here after any length of time away are genuinely shocked at the state of the place."

Others named include the Auckland Central police station and the Manukau District Court building.

Architect Aaron Sills, a member of the Institute of Architects' urban issues group, has been asked to give a professional view of the buildings.

He said the question about a building's ugliness could be a red herring because the focus of attention went on its external appearance.

Architects tended to assess buildings on a broader basis involving issues of construction quality, form and structure, user satisfaction and, "importantly", enhancement of the human spirit.

"It is imperative that the public engage more in debate about Auckland's built environment because any additional public awareness and discussion of authorship and quality will have the effect of encouraging individuals in the industry ... to aim for higher-quality results."

Mr Sills said the Auckland Central police station, opened in 1967 to an old Ministry of Works design, was built originally in a fairly severe style and later updated probably to soften its harshness.

"The lack of articulation and detail in the changes has meant [it] looks like a scaled-up toy."

The Burgoyne St apartments broadcast meanness from the Northwestern Motorway offramp, he said.

"No thought seems to have gone into this public side of the building."

Mr Sills worked on initial design work for the Manukau District Court but agreed its west elevation was bald - the east side was better.

"The court has the typical Manukau City CBD problem of being disconnected from other buildings and so it reads as an object in a paddock rather than part of a larger urban streetscape."

What do you think are Auckland's best and worst examples of architecture and urban design?