Developer welcomes ‘cheese grater’ debate

Architects and developers are wearing a ‘‘cheese grater’’ label with pride, saying it shows how interested the public are in their planned $200 million Auckland high-rise.

The 180-metre-tall multi-use building at 65 Federal St was announced last week.

With 226 apartments, 233 five-star hotel rooms, a ground-floor marketplace and a sky-high public zen garden, it was called a ‘‘landmark for the city’’ by Auckland mayor Phil Goff.

But many social media users couldn’t shake the building’s resemblance to a cheese grater.

Architects and property developers involved in the project are taking the label with good humour, saying the public discussion shows how much of a connection Aucklanders have with buildings in their city.

Brad Luke from Peddle Thorp, who partnered with Woods Bagot to design the building, said architects always loved the public giving their buildings ‘‘a bit of character’’.

‘‘If I mentioned 20 Fenchurch St or Leadenhall or Swiss Re [all in London] nobody would know what any of those are but if I said the Walkie-Talkie, the Cheesegrater and the Gherkin, everybody knows exactly what those are.’’

However, being second, or possibly third in a line of buildings around the world that take after cheese graters is part of the reason why Luke would strike the name off his list, even if the public voted for it.

‘‘That’s ripping off the name of a building,’’ Luke said. ‘‘You can’t do that – be original!’’

Bobby Kennedy of ICD Property, the developers behind the project, said the label was a ‘‘great talking point’’.

‘‘All of the great buildings around the world have a nickname.’’

But Kennedy said the project was not yet ready for an official name or nickname.

Australian architect Pete Miglis from Woods Bagot said the building’s unique window structure, likely at least part of the reason behind the comparison to the texture of a cheese grater, was actually inspired by New Zealand’s silver fern.

‘‘When you turn a silver fern upside down it’s got this beautiful translucent quality to it.’’

This isn’t Miglis’ first trip around the cheese-grater block – an earlier Woods Bagot building, the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), briefly attracted the same nickname, although less justifiably so, he believes.

SAHMRI was only five storeys high, so it was more of a horizontal cheese grater than a vertical one, he said.

An artist’s impressions of ICD Property’s new high-rise, which will stand near Auckland’s Sky Tower. Its unique windows have earned it the nickname ‘‘cheese grater’’.