Why not put hotel on Dowling St car park?
THE only way to unite the community over the fivestar hotel proposal for Moray Pl is to realise that site and the required hotel size are never ever going to be compatible.
We need to embrace the need for the hotel yet we need to look for a more viable site; one that is suitable to build on, safe to operate in and out of, sympathetic to its location, and shaped to allow for interesting architectural design.
I would suggest that the car park site in Dowling St offers all these things:
1. The site allows highrise development without impacting greatly on the residences on the hill behind.
2. Access into the site in lower High St would be convenient and safe for buses, cars, cycles and people to arrive at and depart from.
3. There are no immediate neighbouring buildings which have the heritage values of the town hall.
4. The natural contour of this site and surrounding streets allows underground car parks on multiple levels (after excavation), 25plus floors without impeding the surrounding hill suburbs, a roughly rectangular site.
5. Great views east, south, and north.
6. Walking distance to all the innercity attractions.
7. A green outlook being adjacent to Queens Gardens.
The site could fit a skewed pyramid shaped building that follows the contour of Dowling St in a similar way to Bjarke Ingels’s 57th Street, NYC, tetrahedron.
I would suggest the Otago Regional Council, which proposes new offices there, see the logic of this site for a hotel, and in the interests of the greater good for Dunedin forgo this site.
It instead could be offered the
Moray Pl site, and build its offices there and be close to the DCC offices. Good for collaboration on flood protection, transport, and other joint issues.
There are of course other sites around (Cadbury’s etc), but these are generally on flat land and will impose issues with scale compared to the surrounding buildings, and shading and view issues for others.
All those who think Dunedin must move forward by having a fivestar hotel, and who have been vocal on social media with their support, could pledge to provide $1000 each as a seed fund to get the project rolling. It would only take 2000 people to provide $2 million. This money could be used to get all the necessary designs and permissions in place.
And when the project rolls into its next stage these pledges can be converted into shares in the ownership company.
And, in the end, Dunedin Venues could operate the hotel, and earn some real money to set Dunedin up for future generations.
Neil Gaudin
Maori Hill
[Abridged]
Neoliberalism
CHIEF Justice Sian Elias’ recent comments lamenting the corporatisation of the judicial system are noteworthy because justice is not justice when cheapened by decisions based on commercial imperatives or ‘‘targets’’.
But then neither can our health system deliver care when it is constrained by those same imperatives. Nor our universities, our schools, police or welfare system. New Zealand remains in the grip of a neoliberal fervour that deliberately underfunds public services till they fail and subsequently engages private companies brought in as ‘‘saviours’’.
Despite failing internationally and domestically, this evangel continues to be vaunted and practised by our present Government.
It has manifestly failed to serve the public interest and provides instead an economy deemed ‘‘successful’’ while its society languishes deprived and miserable. David Stillaman Roslyn