Design Objectives Avon River Precinct

Te Mahere Maraka Ōtautahi:

CHRISTCHURCH CENTRAL RECOVERY PLAN: DESIGN CONTEXT FOR THE AVON RIVER PRECINCT / TE PAPA ŌTĀKARO AND NORTH AND EAST FRAMES

CONTENTS:

Introduction

Design Intent

Design Objectives – Avon River Precinct

Design Objectives – North Frame

Design Objectives – East Frame

Extent of Area

Avon River Precinct

North and East Frame

Considerations

Avon River Precinct

Sensitivities - Avon River Precinct

North and East Frames

Spatial relationships & dependencies –

Sensitivities – East Frame

Stakeholder Engagement

Project Material and Policy

Revealing tangata whenua values

Background material and references

Introduction

Background

Canterbury is home to over 560,000 residents and contributes around 12 per cent of gross national product.

Christchurch is crucial to Canterbury and New Zealand for many reasons.

It is New Zealand’s second city and the major service centre for the South Island.
It is home to the South Island’s only tertiary hospital, two universities and seven of New Zealand’s Crown research institutes.
Nearly 70 per cent of the region’s economic output comes from activities that occur within the city.
It is a major strategic transport hub, with a 24 hour airport, and a port that handles over $5 billion of exports per year.
It is the tourism gateway to the South Island.

A thriving central city is critical to the recovery of greater Christchurch.

City centres are engines of productivity and innovation because the higher density of people and businesses makes sharing ideas and establishing connections easier, encourages competition and reduces some of the costs of doing business (such as transport costs)

The central city was the location for many cultural and recreational facilities that helped to make greater Christchurch a great place to live, work and visit. As a city serving almost 560,000 people, Christchurch needs to offer the facilities, services and amenities that would be expected in any equivalent city worldwide.

The Christchurch Central Recovery Plan

“Rebuilding central Christchurch is one of the most ambitious projects in New Zealand’s history”. Hon Gerry Brownlee Minister of Canterbury Earthquake Recovery, July 2012.

The Christchurch Central Recovery Plan provides a framework for developing the Central City.

We have an opportunity to not only rebuild what we have lost in the central city, but to make it better than it ever was.

The people of greater Christchurch have said that they want a distinctive vibrant, green and accessible city central which is a great place to live, work, visit, study, play and set up business, and invest.

The vision is for central Christchurch to become the thriving heart of an international city. It will draw on its rich natural and cultural heritage and the skills and passion of its people to embrace opportunity for innovation, enhancement and growth.

Share An Idea

When the Christchurch City Council asked people to share an idea about central city recovery, it received more than 100,000 ideas.

From the community’s responses five key changes formed the basis of the draft central city plan.

Green city
Stronger built identity
Compact CBD
Live, work, play, learn and visit
Accessible city.

Green City

A revitalised Ōtākaro/Avon River corridor
New street trees, improved surface storm water treatment and a new network of parks that encourage outdoor activities.
A greener, more attractive central Christchurch, which includes measures against climate change.

A Distinctive City

Use of strong urban design principles
Strengthened heritage buildings that can be used for contemporary purposes
An urban building fabric that speaks to our sense of place, our identity, our shared cultural heritage.
Recognise Ngāi Tahu/Ngāi Tūāhuriri heritage and places of significance.

Compact core

A more compact central city core
Well-designed streetscapes, redeveloped civic buildings, ultra-fast broadband and free Wi-Fi.
Car parking buildings and bus routes around the Core.
A lower-rise city with safe, sustainable buildings that look good and function well.

Live, work, play, learn and visit

High-quality inner city housing
New metropolitan sporting facilities
A new central library
New public art and performing arts venues
Playgrounds

Accessible city

A city that is easy to get to and around for all age groups and abilities
Excellent walking and cycling paths and high-quality public transport.

The Blueprint Plan

The Blueprint was developed by a consortium of design consultants working with CERA’s Christchurch Central Development Unit, the Christchurch City Council and Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu.

The starting point for the Blueprint Consortium was the outcome of the “share an idea” process.

The Blueprint which was incorporated into the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan at the end of July 2012, provides a spatial framework for the redevelopment of central Christchurch. It describes the form in which the central city can be rebuilt as a whole and defines the location of 16 ‘anchor projects’ which will stimulate further development. The anchor projects are outlined in the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan document and their location is illustrated on the Blueprint plan.

The Avon River Precinct

The Ōtākaro/Avon River will be celebrated as the city’s new river front precinct. It will provide a link to a number of other green spaces and provide an opportunity for people to relax and play. It will also create opportunities for the city’s cultures to be celebrated. Ngāi Tahu/Ngāi Tūāhuriri values and connections to the Ōtākaro/Avon River will be embraced.

Te Papa Ōtākaro/Avon River Precinct will be a high-quality green space and recreational destination within central Christchurch. The new precinct will give priority to pedestrians and cyclists as well as bringing nature into the central city. The interests and values of Tangata Whenua will be integrated into the new precinct.

The Art Trail

The purpose of the Art Trail is to inject diversity into Te Papa Ōtākaro/Avon River Precinct, and consequently, to increase the attraction of the precinct to as wide an audience as possible. The trail will be designed to draw visitors along it in order to increase the pulling power of Te Papa Ōtākaro to as great a number of people as possible, and to make the precinct attractive along its entire length.

The Frame

The frame will help define a central area known as “The Core”. The Frame will provide new green space and a range of commercial and residential opportunities for short to medium term expansion of central Christchurch. The Frame’s three components – The East, North and south will each have their own distinct character, while urban gateways in the north-west and south east will provide vibrant entry points to the central city.The Frame in tandem with zoning provisions reduces the extent of the central city commercial area so that the oversupply of land is addressed. It will help to increase the value of properties generally across the central city in a way that regulations to contain the central core or new zoning decisions could not. The Frame helps to deliver a more compact core.

The Frame will redefine the central city and articulate the community vision for a green, distinctive, vibrant and accessible city. It will provide an alternative cycling and walking network linking the Ōtākaro/Avon River and Hagley Park.

Te Papa Ōtākaro/Avon River Precinct design will include the North and East Frames. The North Frame includes the site of a building that collapsed during the February earthquake, resulting in many fatalities. Care will need to be taken to ensure that this project is advanced sensitively, in cooperation with representative groups of those who died or who were injured, and with CCC and Ngāi Tahu/Ngāi Tūāhuriri.

The East Frame will act to define the core, provide new green space and a range of commercial and residential development opportunities to revitalise the central city.A Family Playground will potentially take up the entire northern block of the East Frame.

The Art Trail is not anticipated to extend into theSouth Frame,which will provide an attractive campus style environment for businesses liking the CPIT and innovation precinct in the east to Hagley Park and the Health Precinct in the west.

Design Intent

The following sections of this document (and its attachments) are to provide detailed guidance on the objectives driving development of design for Te Papa Ōtākaro, the Avon River Precinct and the North and East Frames.

Design Objectives – Avon River Precinct

The Avon River Precinct, Te Papa Ōtākaro is Christchurch’s urban waterfront. It is the prime open space amenity of Christchurch’s Central Area. The river has rich heritage values for the people of Christchurch and is of particular significance for Ngai Tahu. These heritage values along with other key design objectives will inform the contemporary landscape of the River Precinct.

The overall design objective is to create a distinctive, high quality and widely known waterfront precinct that delivers on a broad range of design objectives and helps to establish Christchurch as one the great small cities in the world. The range of design objectives include; cultural, social, amenity, urban design, ecological, transport, heritage, economic, safety, accessibility, water quality, botanical, recreational, flood management, innovation, low impact design and whole of life cost considerations.

The design objectives for the river precinct are:

To support the high level Christchurch City Recovery Plan principles of Green, Prosperous, Vibrant and Accessible.

To create a pedestrian and recreation prioritised urban river landscape for the Central Core of the city with links to the Frame and Hagley Park.
To recognize the natural, cultural and built heritage of Otautahi/Christchurch with Victoria Square (formerly Market Square)as the heart of the river precinct.
To create the Central City’s primary amenity destination which supports urban life within the Central Core.
To create a setting for a vibrant and sustainable commercial city centre.
To integrate a Te Ngai Tuahuriri/Ngai Tahu design aesthetic and narrative.
To enhance and protect the ecological values, (both in river and terrestrial) and the botanical values of the Avon River corridor.
To take account of whole of life costs including maintenance costs when specifying materials and selecting land cover options.
To integrate solutions for flood management.
To connect with and integrate the transport network as set out in the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan.
To enable integration and continued operation of adjacent activities and land uses.
To take account of the soil types, the presence of springs and the ground water characteristics of the area.
To create a safe, accessible and barrier free environment for people of all ages and abilities.
To identify sites for art works as part of an Art Trail along the River.

Design Objectives – North Frame

The overall design goal and range of design objectives for the north Frame is the same as for the river precinct.

To extend the river precinct to the north.
To create an enhanced setting for new mixed use and residential activities to be located to the immediate north of the Frame.
To provide opportunities to reveal and celebrate streams and springs prevalent in the area.
To link to Tautahi Rua Koiwi, the burial site of Tautahi.
To provide an enhanced setting for the historic Edmonds band rotunda.
To integrate a Te Ngāi Tūāhuriri/Ngāi Tahu design aesthetic and narrative.
To take account of whole of life costs including maintenance costs when specifying materials and selecting land cover options.
To connect with and integrate the transport network as set out in the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan.
To enable integration and continued operation of adjacent activities and land uses.
To take account of the soil types, and the ground water characteristics of the area.
To create a safe, accessible and barrier free environment for people of all ages and abilities.

Design Objectives – East Frame

The overall design goal for The East Frame is to provide a high quality urban open space and a range of commercial, retail and residential opportunities that redefine and catalyse the east side of the central city and articulates the community vision for a green, distinctive, vibrant and accessible city. The range of design objectives include; amenity, recreation, cultural transport, safety, accessibility, heritage, whole of life costs and urban design and landscape considerations.

To create a city-wide family playground for all ages and abilities.
To retain the form historic of open Latimer Square.
To provide walking and cycling paths through the frame, both east-west and north-south linking residential areas to the core and connecting the Avon River precinct to CPIT and the Innovation precinct thence along the South Frame to Hagley Park and the Health Precinct.
To facilitate temporary events.
To define an area that will be retained in a permanent open space within the east frame between the Innovation Precinct and the River Precinct that will provide an important setting for future residential and commercial activities.
To recommend forms for the future built edges to Manchester Street, the permanent open space within the East Frame and Latimer Square.
To recommend development patterns and access and parking patterns for future business and residential uses within the Frame.
To preserve and enhance views and vistas to important geographical and cultural landmarks.
To integrate a Te Ngai Tuahuriri/Ngai Tahu design aesthetic and narrative.
To take account of whole of life costs including maintenance costs when specifying materials and selecting land cover options.
To connect with and integrate the transport network as set out in the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan.
To enable integration and continued operation of adjacent activities and land uses.
To take account of the soil types, the presence of springs former water courses and the ground water characteristics of the area.

To create a safe, accessible and barrier free environment for people of all ages and abilities.

Extent of Area

Avon River Precinct

The extent of the landscape design brief for Te Papa ö Ōtākaro is a 3.2km stretch of the river from Rolleston Avenue adjacent to the Christchurch Hospital in the west to Fitzgerald Avenue beyond the Avon Loop in the east. The corridor is approximately 60m wide or greater (generally not less than 30m either side from the top of the bank) aligning with the private property cadastral boundaries that define the river corridor. The corridor encompasses Oxford and Cambridge Terraces which follow the river alignment along its true right and left banks. In area Te Papa ö Ōtākaro is some 26.5ha.

Te Papa ö Ōtākaro is expanded in the section between Colombo Street in the west and Madras Street in the east to also include the full extent of the contiguous North Frame and the first block of the East Frame through to Armagh Street (2.5 ha). This area is the intended location for a citywide children’s playground. The brief does not extend to include any adjoining land in the South Frame on Oxford Terrace in the west.

The physical extent of Te Papa ö Ōtākaro is illustrated on Attachment 2 (1:1000 @ A3) attached to this RFP.

The tributaries which feed the Central City section of the Avon River have a catchment that extends some 10km inland whilst downstream, the river extends a further 15.3km to the sea. A contiguous ‘River Park’ may eventually extend to the coast through the Residential Red Zone connecting the city to the sea. This possibility should be taken into account in the design of the River Precinct, but the possible River Park to the sea is outside the scope of this project.

North and East Frame

The subject area to be designed and implemented as the Tāparepare Rāwhiti - East Frame is the area as described in Attachment 1. The area generally extends from Armagh Street south to Lichfield Street.

The envelope for the development areas is to be determined in this contract. The uses of the land within this development area are expected to be residential and potentially other commercial, retail or visitor accommodation uses. The considerations for the interface between this development area and the open space within the Frame are described further under the Considerations Section below.

Considerations

Avon River Precinct

The physical extent of Te Papa Ōtākaro is able to be well defined, however there remain a number of uncertainties with respect to the nature of the adjacent environment and the infrastructure that interfaces with and extends into/through the river precinct. The successful consultants are expected to have made themselves aware of the current and known future state of the environment along the river corridor and to have factored these uncertainties into their RFP response.