Ironbank is a 4,500-m2, six-level mixed-used (retail and office) development on Karangahape Road, Auckland city centre, New Zealand. The building also provides a mechanical, automated car stacker for 96 cars, which the robotic system racks in a four-level storage wall. [1] [2] It also used a variety of environmentally friendly building facilities, such as reduced energy demands due to a design that can dispense with air conditioning. [2]
The seven-storey building has both been criticised and lauded for looking like "rusting containers", and an architecture critic noted it reminded him of "kindergarten day in a shipping yard", calling it the "most complex and adventurous building" of RTA Studio (designed for Samson Corporation). [2] The building is hoped to achieve 5-star Green Building certification. [3]
In 2009, it received three architecture awards, in the "commercial", "sustainable" and "urban design" categories of the New Zealand Institute of Architects Auckland awards sponsored by the paint company Resene. [4] [1] It then captured second place at the World Architecture Festival, a European award, making it the best-scoring New Zealand entrant ever at the festival, and being praised for "Its sophisticated attitude to the messy urbanity of south-central Auckland". [5]
It was also mentioned in a The New Zealand Herald series where prominent Aucklanders nominated outstanding Auckland buildings constructed since 2000. Urban designer Ludo Campbell-Reid [6] specifically noted that the building was greater than the sum of its parts, that it would help re-invigorate Karangahape Road and its backstreets, and that unlike most buildings, it looked better from the back than from the front side. [7]
Queen Street is the major commercial thoroughfare in the Auckland CBD, Auckland, New Zealand's main population centre. The northern end is at Queens Wharf on the Auckland waterfront, adjacent to the Britomart Transport Centre and the Downtown Ferry Terminal. The road is close to straight, the southern end being almost three kilometres away in a south-southwesterly direction on the Karangahape Road ridge, close to the residential suburbs in the interior of the Auckland isthmus.
Auckland City was a territorial authority with city status covering the central isthmus of the urban area of Auckland, New Zealand. It was governed by the Auckland City Council from 1989 to 2010, and as a territory within the wider Auckland Region, was also governed by Auckland Regional Council. Auckland City was disestablished as a local authority on 1 November 2010, when Auckland City Council was amalgamated with other councils of the Auckland Region into the new Auckland Council. At the time of its disestablishment, the city had a resident population of around 450,000.
Karangahape Road is one of the main streets in the central business district (CBD) of Auckland, New Zealand. The massive expansion of motorways through the nearby inner city area – and subsequent flight of residents and retail into the suburbs from the 1960s onwards – turned it from one of Auckland's premier shopping streets into a marginal area with the reputation of a red light district. Now considered to be one of the cultural centres of Auckland, since the 1980s–1990s it has been undergoing a slow process of gentrification, and is now known for off-beat cafes and boutique shops.
Waitematā railway station, commonly known as Britomart railway station or Britomart Transport Centre, is the public transport hub in the central business district of Auckland and the northern terminus of the North Island Main Trunk railway line. It combines a railway station in a former Edwardian post office, extended with expansive modernist architectural elements, with a bus interchange. It is at the foot of Queen Street, the main commercial thoroughfare of the CBD, with the main ferry terminal just across Quay Street.
Newton is a small suburb of Auckland, New Zealand, under the local governance of the Auckland Council. It had a population of 1,641 in the 2013 census.
Due Drop Events Centre is a multi-purpose event centre located in Manukau, Auckland, New Zealand, with an indoor arena, theatre and meeting halls hosting community, cultural and sports events, concerts and plays, exhibits, trade fairs and expos, corporate functions, meetings, weddings and other special events. Construction of the centre cost an estimated NZ$ 48.7 million, of which somewhat less than half came from the former Manukau City Council. The naming rights sponsor was Vodafone New Zealand, but after it was purchased by the Due Drop Foundation, the centre was subsequently renamed.
Myers Park is a narrow park in central Auckland, New Zealand, running parallel to the upper part of Queen Street. It is characterised by steep, grassed slopes and canopied with a mixture of large exotic and native trees, including an alley of large palm trees.
Westfield Newmarket is a shopping centre in Newmarket, a central suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. The centre initially opened in the 1980s; in early 2018, the centre closed for a major re-build and expansion; it re-opened in August 2019 after an 18 month closure. The centre is located at 277 Broadway and, since expansion, 309 Broadway; it was often referred to simply as 277 prior to refurbishment.
Princes Wharf is a former commercial wharf on the Auckland waterfront, in Auckland, New Zealand, which has been redeveloped into a multi-story high-class mixed-use development and cruise ship terminal.
Ludo Campbell-Reid is Design Champion and General Manager of the Auckland Design Office at Auckland Council. He is an urban designer and planning specialist, and a competitive rower. Campbell-Reid was born to an English father and a South African mother in Hampton Court, southwest London, in 1968. He graduated from the University of Westminster in London with a BA with Honours In Urban Planning Studies, then completed a MA and Diploma In Urban Design at Oxford Brookes University.
Westfield Albany is a shopping centre in the Auckland suburb of Albany, New Zealand, opposite the Albany Lakes Civic Park. It is majority owned (51%) by Scentre Group with the remainder owned by the Singapore Government's GIC. Until 2014 it was wholly owned by Scentre Group, which was formerly part of Westfield Group.
The Auckland Central Business District (CBD), or Auckland city centre, is the geographical and economic heart of the Auckland metropolitan area. It is the area in which Auckland was established in 1840, by William Hobson on land gifted by mana whenuahapū Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei. It is New Zealand's leading financial hub, and the centre of the country's economy; the GDP of the Auckland Region was $126.917 billion in the year ending March 2022.
The Sentinel is a luxury residential skyscraper in Takapuna, the central business area of North Shore City, New Zealand. The largest and currently only skyscraper in the city, it has 30 storeys. and is 120 m tall. It offers views over the Waitemata Harbour, the wider Hauraki Gulf as well as over to the Auckland CBD skyline. The Sentinel was opened to the first residents in February 2008.
The Aotea Centre is a performing arts and events centre in Auckland, New Zealand. Located at the western edge of Aotea Square, off Queen Street, the centre provides a cultural, entertainment and conventions venue space in the heart of the city, and is managed by Auckland Unlimited. The origin of its name is Motu Aotea, the Māori name for Great Barrier Island, which is the largest offshore island of New Zealand and approximately 90 km from downtown Auckland.
The Deloitte Centre is a skyscraper office tower located in Auckland, New Zealand. Built between 2006–2009, it contains 18 levels of offices as well as 4 basement car parks and 3 levels of plant, and a special two storey high architectural feature on the top giving a total height of 100 meters. The building will have 5 stars in the 'Green Star' environmental rating.
Vinegar Lane is a development near the suburbs of Ponsonby and Grey Lynn in Auckland, New Zealand. The project was originally announced in 2006 under the name Soho Square Ponsonby, going into receivership by 2009 and leaving a large vacant plot in the area. In 2011 the site was purchased by Progressive Enterprises, which opened a precinct at the site in 2018. As of 2021 a building featuring an underground car park, retail, and office space has been completed, as have multiple residential buildings.
Ivan Mercep was a New Zealand architect.
The Nelson Street Cycleway is a cycleway in Auckland, New Zealand. The most well-known section of the path is Te Ara I Whiti, translated as, and commonly known as Lightpath. The cycleway then continues on to the Nelson Street arterial road into the City Centre.
The New Zealand Institute of Architects Gold Medal is an award presented annually by the Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects (NZIA) to a New Zealand architect.
ResenePaints LTD is a New Zealand paint and building materials manufacturer and retailer.
Media related to Ironbank at Wikimedia Commons