Dixon Street and Te Aro Park design improvements

About the project

This project is a key outcome of the Pōneke Promise – our joint commitment to improving safety and vibrancy in the central city.

Te Aro Park, Courtenay Place and the surrounding areas were looking and feeling unsafe, and so through the Pōneke Promise we set out on a mission to address this. Improving public spaces is a key part of the programme to revitalise the area and bring the buzz back. 

Stage one: Dixon Street

Stage one of the urban design work involved transitionary changes to Dixon Street which are now complete.

You can read more about the completed upgrade in our news section: New and improved Dixon Street open for business.

Work included:

• Widening the footpath along the northern side of Dixon Street with wooden decking. This will visually and physically connect Te Aro park with the wider area and provide better sightlines to and from the park.
• Installing planters alongside the decking which will help slow down the traffic, create clear boundaries between the street and pedestrian space and improve the look and feel of the space.
• Removing some carparks to create ‘parklets’ which will support businesses to utilise outdoor dining space.

See photos of the Dixon Street improvements:

Crime Prevention through Environmental Design

It’s about more than just improving the look and feel. At the core of this project is what we call CPTED, Crime Prevention through Environmental Design Principals. There are some unique challenges in the area including the lack of visibility into the park past the parked cars, blind spots, narrow footpaths and lack of activation.

The new design for Dixon Street addresses these issues by creating better sightlines to and from the park, slowing the traffic, and providing more pedestrian and outdoor dining space.

Stage two: Te Aro Park

This part of the project involves permanent urban design changes to Te Aro Park and surrounds, including the removal of the toilets which happened in November 2022.

Toilet removal

The design and location of the toilets had been causing problems for some time. Not only was the position of the toilets culturally inappropriate on the former site of Te Aro Pā, but the design itself is secluded and blocks important sightlines into the park – creating the perfect environment for anti-social behaviour. Removing the toilets was a big milestone for the Pōneke Promise and is an important step towards making our central city safer for all.

We’ll be building some new toilets over the road in Inglewood Place, to replace the Te Aro Park provision. The new facility will be designed with CPTED principles in mind to ensure the same problems don't just transfer to the new location and urban design changes will happen at the same time to improve the overall look and feel of Inglewood Place.

Work on the Inglewood Place toilets cannot start until 2024, due to Wellington Water being on site with their pump station work, however we’ve installed some temporary toilets in Victoria Street to bridge the gap since the Te Aro Park toilets are removed.

Urban design improvements

With Te Aro Park being one of the last pieces of open space within the historic Pā area, and home to Te Waimāpihi artwork which represents links to the awa of the same name and the historic use of the area by Māori, the site has high significance for Mana Whenua.

When the project was initially set up, the scope was focused on the removal of the public toilets on the park, upgrading the area around them, and improving sightlines and connectivity into the park through the transitional work on Dixon Street. The Te Waimāpihi artwork (the sculpture made up of the tiles, water features and grassed areas) remained out of scope.

A co-design process with mana whenua was initiated so that the new works would align with their aspirations and values for the area. Through this co-design process with mana whenua and our Māori design lead on the project – who’s role is to translate the aspirations and values into physical design – it became apparent that the scope of the project would not provide opportunity to meaningfully give effect to Mana Whenua’s aspirations. One of the key aspirations is to strengthen the connection of uri (descendants) with the whenua.

As a result, the mana whenua working group requested that we widen our scope to look at the entire Te Aro Park, including investigation of design opportunities if the Te Waimāpihi artwork were to be decommissioned and removed.

Additionally, the LGWM City Streets Programme are in the early stages of designing permanent upgrades to Dixon Street which integrate into the upgraded surrounding network (Golden Mile, Taranaki Street, and Victoria Street). Any changes to the park or Dixon Street need to be integrated together to achieve the best public space outcomes.

What’s next

We will investigate the potential for upgrading the whole area (Dixon Street, Te Aro Park and Inglewood Place).

We held engagement workshops in October and November 2022 with children, youth, local residents and businesses to hear their aspirations for the park. The information from these workshops, alongside the direction given by mana whenua, will be used to create an integrated design solution that achieves more public space, safety and accessibility benefits to be realised.

Background

This project came about through the Pōneke Promise in response to safety issues identified in the Te Aro Park – Assessing Harm report. You can find this report, and more about the initiative, on our Pōneke Promise section.

Contact us

If you have any questions please contact Charlotta Heyd, Project Manager, Pōneke Promise Urban Regeneration and Design.
Email: poneke.promise@wcc.govt.nz