Wellington public toilets cost $2.3 million, transform into light show at night

A new public toilet block is causing a stir in the capital with its rainbow lighting exterior and $2.3m price tag dubbed a “bit of an overkill” by a neighbouring property owner.

The Inglewood Place toilets opened last week on the corner of Taranaki and Dixon streets in Wellington’s CBD.

“The building, with its ribbed timber facade, looks great during the day and is transformed into a special light show at night”, Wellington City Council’s chief operating officer James Roberts said of the facility.

The new block replaces toilets removed from nearby Te Aro Park in 2022, after they became a hot spot for crime and antisocial behaviour and represented a “cause of hurt for mana whenua due to their proximity to Te Aro Pā”, the council said at the time.

Wellington's new $2.3m public toilet block is "transformed into a special light show at night".

The exterior lighting in the new building, designed by Angus Muir Design, will be managed by Wellington City Council.

Roberts said it will be changed to reflect awareness campaigns like Breast Cancer Awareness month, and major events like Anzac Day, Christmas, Wellington Anniversary, WOW, and the Jazz Festival.

Construction started in November last year and the toilets were supposed to be open early this year.

The new toilet block's lighting system cost $150,000. Photo / Ethan Manera

John Gibbons, who owns the Hope Gibbons carpark and part-owns the Les Mills Gym building next door, said the toilets are a welcome development, but questions the price.

“I think the new facility looks very superb. Personally, I think it’s probably a little bit of an overkill”, Gibbons said.

“It’s an enormous need really, since they removed those other toilets [...] my car park has become a place where people have used as a toilet where there is no toilet in there, so I’m just forever cleaning it out and it is rather upsetting both for me and for my clients who park in there, the smell, it’s been an ongoing battle”, he said.

Property owner John Gibbons thinks the new toilets look superb but are probably "a bit of an overkill". Photo / Ethan Manera

The Herald asked those on the street what they thought of the new toilets, with public opinion split on the design and cost of the facility.

Some believed the unique design would add to the area, others described them as “ugly”.

Many were pleased the project was finally finished and the facility could finally be used, citing a lack of public toilets in the CBD.

The facility includes two standard and three accessible toilets with baby-changing facilities, automated timed doors and hands-free controls.

Two of the toilets will be open 24/7, with three locked between 11pm and 7am.

The sixth toilet is a ‘Changing Places’ facility which allows registered people with disabilities to use the toilet, change space and shower.

There are five public toilets in the building, with a sixth specifically for those with 'Changing Places' access. Photo / Ethan Manera

A Wellington City Council spokeswoman said the $2.3m figure was a projected cost, with all invoices for work still to come in, but expected the facility to be “on or under budget”.

The cost includes a projected $421,000 for professional services, $33,529 for consents, and $1,869,500 for physical works.

The lighting system cost $150,000.

Local Government Minister Simon Watts said the council’s spending decisions are its responsibility, but said its core focus must be “delivering the basics: fixing water infrastructure, filling in potholes, and picking up rubbish”.

In a statement Watts said councils must “go line by line and ask whether your spending is actually benefitting communities and fixing those fundamentals”.

“That’s why the Government is proposing to refocus the purpose of local government in law, and we’ll be introducing a bill in the next month to do just that.”

Local Government Minister Simon Watts. Photo / Alex Burton.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon last year hit out at councils calling on them to restrain spending to “the basics”.

The Government believes councils have at times been distracted by expensive boondoggle infrastructure when they should have been investing in core services.

In 2011 the capital attracted attention with another set of public toilets - two designer dunnies on the waterfront, which came to be known as the lobster loos.

The council could have built normal toilets at the time for $175,000 but opted for the more creative lavatories, shaped like lobster tails, for a cost of $375,000.

Wellington spent $375,000 on these 'lobster loos' in 2011. Photo / Supplied

In 2014 the toilets were rated third best in the world in a rest room “Oscars” list.

Bret Thurston from Wellington’s Studio Pacific Architecture designed the dunnies and said it was great to have them recognised internationally.

“Because the toilets look so unusual, there was quite a bit of resistance to start with,” Thurston said at the time.

“They are quite a talking point among visitors to the city. Many of them don’t know that they are two unisex toilets until they have a closer look.”

Ethan Manera is a New Zealand Herald journalist based in Wellington. He joined NZME in 2023 as a broadcast journalist and is interested in local issues, politics and property in the capital. Ethan can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.