Hard News: Aiming for mediocrity. Again.
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The one and only thing I could see going for the North Harbour idea is that Eden Park would still have to exist for Auckland rugby matches.
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Some of the hype and disinformation surrounding the waterfront stadium project is starting to get up my nose.
For instance we now have to build everything with terrorists in mind, then of course there are tsunami, North Korea's nuclear capability, dog attacks, home invasions (whops sorry they were yesterdays media attention - nice to know we stamped them out with the help of the media).
More recently some in the media have questioned costing, time constarints and engineering feats etc.
Lets remember that whoever builds and designs this thing has a lot at stake. Possibly one of the most visible and scrutinised public works in years, any slip up and TV1 & 3 will have a helicopter hovering above or Tony Field with a hard hat on at the front gates quicker than a rat out of aquaduct (excuse the pun).
Warren and Mahoney and so far Fletchers are very large reputable companies who are not going to have a legacy of a failed stadium hanging around their heads. If we take Warren and Mahoney for instance they have created or fashioned some of New Zealands most iconic architecture that in itself came to mean more than just the bricks and motar. I would tend to think that the next edition of their fine history ends with "failed stadium architects".
Fletchers is also as we know a world class construction company, regarded world wide for their skill and expertise. I have heard hype that it will sink into the sea, or be overcome with water in the face of a tsunami. Well if a tsunami is big enought to inundate the stadium, then that will not be the only building that we need worry about, i'd be running for the top of Mt Eden in that case. As for falling in the water, as mentioned above, Fletchers are not going to let themselves go under or ruin their reputation on such a project.
It is a real shame that we have such low esteme of our architects and engineers in this country. I mean Fletchers built among many of their most prsestigious projects the 1billion dollar Getty Centre in Los Angeles and Burj Al Arab in Dubai. These are not some fly by night cowboys wo are going to fleece the taxpayer and deny mum's poor hip operation as suggested on other blogs.
I guess part of the problem has been the lack of information from the government, but also the histeria that the media has managed to get itself into has hindered good journalism. There has been little or no in dept work into who are these buggers entrusted to design and build this project. The closest we got was John Campbell actually getting one of the partners of Warren and Mahoney in to discuss the project, even then the questions were soft.
Sometimes the media is too wrapped up in its own importance and this has been one of those times. Filming Danny Watson fielding calls from Outraged of Onehunga was apparently more important than looking at what needs to be done to create a world class stadium. Has one journalist actually talked to any consulting engineers, or the clients of Warren and Mahoney and Fletchers to guage the quality of their work. I guess theres no headline in Fletchers constructs Burj Al Arab worlds only 6 star hotel on time and on budget, is there.
When Auckland stops looking past its own nose, and the journalists start doing their job, and the govt starts putting some concrete stuff out there, then we'll get some real debate going.
Meanwhile I'm off to develop and international terrorist tidal wave detector to sell to the stadium, there seems to be some money in it.
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holly crap, sorry about the rant guys...
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