June 2010
In Urban's June issue we feature 'Urban design a la creole' with a fascinating insight into New Orleans' revitalisation.
The article's author Keith Hall is the former chief executive of the NZ Planning Institute. He is now based in Canada but is keeping a close eye on urban developments in the USA. Keith has taken some great photographs to illustrate his story, which details lessons New Orleans can teach us about great urbanism.
Elsewhere in the magazine we preview the upcoming annual meeting of Towns and Cities New Zealand in Wellington, and some computer-generated illustrations show us what part of Auckland's waterfront will look like when much of the Tank Farml clutter is removed.
Helped by two beautiful colour illustrations from the Alexander Turnbull Library, 'The Lone Voice' tells the story of Ruatara, the Nga Puhi chief who could qualify for the description of New Zealand's first urban planner.
Owen McShane from the Resource Centre For Management Studies offers a sceptical and often humorous view of 'smart planning, arguing that central planning cannot achieve a better comprehensive integration of land use and transport than the spontaneous order generated by individuals operating within a market-led econonomy, governed by the laws of deterministic chaos.
When was the last time Auckland built a new theatre for performing arts? Who knows, but Urban talked to architects Pip Chesire and Simon McLean about the new one being built behind the frontage of 305 Queen Street.
We report on the results of the Landscape Architecture Awards ceremony and in Orewa, GHD and the Rodney District Council might well deserve a reward for the transformation of the town's beachfront area. We detail the success of the project, which followed the completion of the Northern Gateway Motorway Extension project.
From San Francisco comes the story of an architect who is angry at the city's Board of Supervisors who stymied his plans for a 38-storey condominium. Jeffrey Heller is saying he's getting a far more enthusiastic reponse to his work from local government in China than from his home country. We celebrate the work of Warren & Mahoney founder Sir Miles Warren, and we go international again with stories about urban design and planning from the US, from Ireland and from Australia. Finally, on p32 we remind readers of the need to subscribe to Urban to ensure you continue to receive it through 2010.
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